PayPal New Holds Policy
You may have received an email or notice when you logged in to your PayPal account about the new PayPal Hold Policy that is affecting ALL customers regardless of their status or past history.
Initially, I saw the email and thought this was specific to me; our business has never had a charge-back or any payment issues with PayPal or from customers. This seemed really odd. So, I called Customer Service and the rep informed me that this was a blanked policy applying to all customers.
I think they should consider each account status and history before taking the global approach to such drastic changes – putting payments from customers in 21 day Limbo! We have used PayPal as part of our business for nearly 10 years.
Here’s the info from PayPal -
OVERVIEW: When some sellers receive payments, we may hold the money in a pending balance for up to 21 days to help make sure that there are funds in the seller’s account to cover potential refunds or claims. The funds may be released early if PayPal determines that the transaction has been fulfilled and customers are satisfied.
While funds are pending, the money belongs to you but isn’t available to spend or withdraw.
If payments on your account are held, we’ll notify you. PayPal will re-evaluate your account every 35 days and decide whether or not to continue holding payments. If we decide to stop holding future payments, we’ll contact you.
The best way to help get the money released sooner than 21 days is to process orders right away, ship quickly using a service that provides online tracking, upload or save tracking numbers, and communicate with your customers early and often.
The funds from each transaction will typically be released 21 days after payment, unless there’s a dispute, chargeback, claim, return or reversal on that transaction, or any other limitation on your account. The money may be released sooner if:
- Your buyer leaves positive feedback (Applies only to eBay items) or
- We can confirm that the item was delivered* and 3 days elapse. This gives the buyer enough time to review the order and file a dispute if necessary
Here are some things you can do:
- If you sell on eBay, improve your Detailed Seller Ratings ( DSRs )scores
- Avoid buyer disputes, claims, and chargebacks
- If you have a buyer dispute, resolve it quickly
- Process your orders right away and ship quickly using a service that provides tracking and delivery confirmation
- Upload or save tracking information or Delivery Confirmation numbers
- Communicate early and often with your buyers
- Make sure you confirm the address and phone numbers associated with your PayPal account, and keep them up to date
- Verify your account and keep your financial information (like bank account and credit card numbers and expiration) up to date
This typically affects sellers whose businesses or selling activities pose a higher than average risk of future transaction problems, such as potential refunds, disputes, claims or chargebacks. In deciding whether or not to hold funds in a pending balance, we review many account factors including transaction activity, the rate of customer disputes, the type of business a seller runs, average delivery time frames, customer satisfaction, performance and history. We understand that some experienced sellers may be affected. While history with PayPal is important, it’s only one of many factors we consider.
Though we can’t include every reason your account may have been affected here, here are some common reasons:
- You have limited history or selling activity with eBay and PayPal
- You have low Detailed Seller Ratings, negative Feedback or other indication of below-standard performance on eBay
- You have a high rate of customer refunds, disputes, claims or chargebacks
- You’re selling in a high risk category or industry such as, but not limited to, tickets, travel, gift certificates, computers, consumer electronics, or cell phones
- Your business or selling activity is inconsistent. For example, you have a spike in selling activity, your average selling price changes, or you started selling in a new category without an established history in that category
- The account information you have provided is incomplete or inaccurate, or we’re uncertain with the information you’ve provided
- Your withdrawal activity has changed
- You ship the item with UPS, USPS or FedEx and upload tracking information from the transaction details page or
- Or
- You use PayPal or eBay shipping labels. Please note that for US shipments, PayPal shipping labels can be used with USPS and UPS, and eBay shipping labels can be used with USPS.
Once the tracking number reflects the shipment is delivered, PayPal will review and may release the Hold after 3 days elapses. This provides enough time for the buyer to review the shipment and file a dispute if necessary.
PayPal is holding $1000.00 of my money which is preventing me from being able to ship out items promptly and they use that as a excuse to continue holding my money. I created a petition to get this stopped immediately. Its the holidays and I’m unable to go shopping for my friends and family because of this. They also informed me today that they plan to hold on to it for another 35 days. This is a scam using other peoples money to collect interest!
http://t.co/pwaENtcd