Why are ebay payments not instantaneous? It's 2023. We should get our money immediately after sale.

[the_repurpose_life]

Can someone explain to me why ebay managed payments cannot be done immediately? It's 2023 and we still have days (3 days now with money in 'processing' and not available to be withdrawn). Makes absolutely no sense.  You have Zelle,  you have Venmo, you have Paypal that allowed sales to go immediately to debit cards to buy more items to sell.  Very frustrating when you have bills due and you cannot get your money. And it's a little more suspicious now because ebay says  I can shop on ebay with funds in processing but can't actually withdraw those funds. Doesn't make any sense at all.

[wooden_flower]

Credit card transactions are not instantaneous.  Go to your own card activity online - you will see purchases you made today and yesterday pending, not yet added to your balance.  Those are the same 2 days that eBay takes to make your funds available for withdrawal.  I do think they could shorten it to 1 day since much of the processing is accomplished in les that 2 days.

Payment services like Zelle are direct debits from your bank account, not processed through the card association system. Paypal was unique in not waiting for transactions to complete processing before allowing access to the funds, which eBay is now doing by allowing you to use the funds for purchasing.

Using the funds for a purchase keeps the money in the payment system - it is not the same as giving you access to transfer the funds to your bank.