Paypal refund - confused

Rebekah

I just received a refund from a seller where the item had been lost in the post. No problem there, but I got the following message in my refund email from PayPal:

'Temporary Hold Information: A temporary hold has been placed on funds that were returned to your account because you used Instant Bank Transfer to fund the original payment. The funds from this payment cannot be released until they have arrived from your bank account, which usually takes three to four working days.'

I'm confused by the whole message but especially the line in italics. Can anyone help explain why they have put a hold on the refund?

glen5213

because it is pay pall and they can the bunch of !!!!!!

Hintza

To be more sensible than the last poster; it is because the money has not made its way from your bank account to PayPal yet. So they will not release it until it has done. It is the arcane British Banking rules that are to blame more than PayPal in this case I think.

Rebekah

So the first bank transfer hasn't gone through? Why can't they just cancel the first one instead of taking it out and putting it back in?

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Perhaps it can't be cancelled once a transfer has been initiated.