Whats is a Paypal 'eCheque' payment?

the_tired_one

A buyer used this method to pay for an item of mine of Thursday night.

This is the message I have from Paypal:-

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Payment Type:
eCheque

The eCheque payment you have received will show an Uncleared status until the funds have cleared from the buyer's account - usually three to four working days. Please do not send any merchandise to the buyer until this payment clears.

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What is an eCheque? Are they straightforward as 'normal' Paypal payemnts.

Do I need to worry about it? Buyer is contacting ME to ask if its cleared, wheras I am sure its nothing to do with me.

Thanks

frivolous_fay

It's just a slow way of making a paypal payment - it's due to the buyer's payment arrangements.

You'll see when it has cleared, I don't think he will, and DON'T send anything out until it has cleared.

Contains_Mild_Peril

It might not be the buyer's fault: occasionally, payments go thorugh as e-cheques instead of the usual instant payments for no apparent reason. I've experienced this as a buyer and as a seller. It will take a while to clear, so explain this to your buyer so they know it's not your fault either!

RFW

In hopefully simple terms....

Buyer has no funds in Paypal account but has authorised Paypal to take funds from his/her bank account. Paypal then send the request to the buyer's bank who then send the money to the buyer's account and then it appears cleared in your account. This payment is called an "echeque".

The buyer often does not know that this has happened, so a message to let them know can sometimes help (although in this case they have contacted you, so they know about it). It can take 2 weeks to clear, or at least to get confirmation that it has cleared, they seem to have improved lately, but my "success" rate in getting cleared echeques is about 50%, so don't send until you get clearance notification.

laura1976

Just found this myself because 2 of my payments have gone out as echeques. I used to have a paypal account but closed it and opened a new one because the card was out of date and it seemed easier to just start again, I've never had this before and the things are saying "estimated clear date 3rd july". Would it speed things up if i added the balance to my paypal account then paid them again and cancelled the other payments?

Edit.......just been rooting around and realised I hadnt added my switch card to make instant payments. Can I cancel the echeques and pay again instantly now?

RFW

Edit.......just been rooting around and realised I hadnt added my switch card to make instant payments. Can I cancel the echeques and pay again instantly now?

I don't think you can cancel it, I may be wrong (it happens!) I think the way round is to ask the seller to stop/cancel payment and then resubmit.

edsjad

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote: »

It might not be the buyer's fault: occasionally, payments go thorugh as e-cheques instead of the usual instant payments for no apparent reason. I've experienced this as a buyer and as a seller. It will take a while to clear, so explain this to your buyer so they know it's not your fault either!

yes, i've known it take as long as 10 days - ridiculous! As a buyer, this has appeared when all that has happened is that there wasn't enough funds in my paypal account so some of the funds have come out of my current account. It disappears from my account straight away so i don't know where it goes for that period of time. For that reason, I don't worry too much about 'paypal payment pending'. I know it's gone out of the buyer's account. J x

frivolous_fay

RFW is right.

Remember you're safer paying by credit card rather than debit / switch.

frivolous_fay

It's cos they don't like it when you pay by CC, because they have very little comeback if you get your CC provider to chargeback in the event of a problem.

greenstreetprince

i was going through paypal options the other day and there was an option to not accept eCheques as a seller, might be in everyones best interest to enable that option!

laura1976

Oh how pants! Yes I tried but there's no way to cancel it, maybe I'll drop both sellers a quick mail just to apologise and offer to resubmit payment if they cancel from their end as RFW suggests. Thanks for the help everyone, I'm sure paypal never used to be so flippin complicated!