mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
Why, Paypal fronted money to us when our buyers paid. Paypal has the same processing time as Manage payments does on credit card payments. But what PP chose to do was front us the funds so we could access it right away. PP has done this for years.
@mam98031 wrote:
We have been discussing a buyer paying an Ebay seller using an Echeck via PayPal.
You have an order from me sitting in your Paid And Ready To Ship.
(Please don't cancel it I want it so it is not a test purchase).
I paid you with my PayPal account using my eBay Managed Payment checking account
as the funding source. I took some screen shots of eBay checkout, my purchase history.
the emails I received from eBay and PayPal, and the order details page form my PayPal
account for the order so that you can see everything from my side.
As you can see everything happens in the same amount of time as if I Paid with a credit
card and in a matter of a few minutes PayPal 100% fronts the money to eBay from (me)
the buyer and the Payment is complete from PayPal to eBay.
@rugerskick wrote:Nope. Just nope.
Please be more specific, this thread has 80+ posts. What is not helpful to you?
It appears as normal on my side as the seller. I see no difference at all.
Just one thing I'd like to note. Unless my memory is failing me, in PP we could pay with a credit card, debit card, cash in PP, instant transfer or echeck.
Now I suspect that an instant transfer is what you selected to do, but I agree with you that in either instant it appears that PP is fronting and guaranteeing the funds.
And thank you so much for the sale. I appreciate that too.
Thanks for trying that out.
I agree, you are correct that PayPal "fronted the money" and processed the payment instantly, rather than processing it as an echeck. However, that is because you had a credit card on file (outlined in red):
PayPal normally sends bank-account-payments instantly if there is an instant-payment backup method on file (credit/debit card or PayPal balance). Presumably, if the bank-account payment fails, they will take the money from your credit card. There's a note about this in the PayPal help article about sending echecks (yellow highlight):
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/i-sent-an-echeck,-but-the-payment-is-pending.-why-faq572
...
From reading in the PayPal community, it appears that PayPal may sometimes send bank-account-payments as echecks even if there is a PayPal balance or another backup payment method available, depending on their assessment of the risk:
Reading through other posts in the PayPal community, it appears that PayPal may sometimes process bank-account-payments instantly, even if there isn't a backup payment method on file. However, it's not usually possible to tell for certain if the person posting had a backup method or not. If they didn't, then PayPal may have chosen to front the money sometimes and not other times, and it probably depends on their assessment of the risk, just like the situation described above by the PayPal moderator.
But, it is also possible that some banks will clear the payment more quickly than the standard estimate of 3-5 business days. It's possible that banks have changed their processes in the last 20 years, and they may process funds more quickly for customers who don't pose a risk.
@rugerskick wrote:I was replying to the OP and the scenario he explained. It is highly suspicious. I wouldn't touch that "echeck" with a 20 ft pole considering the other things the buyer did.
As a seller you don't have a choice in the matter if the buyer pays using PayPal. Ebay decides what forms of payment we will accept.
@rugerskick wrote:You need to read more carefully.
The OP said in his opening post that the buyer had closed his paypal account after "issues with it".
Thank you, I understand. I should have paid closer attention to what you said. You were simply referring to what the OP said, not what the conversation evolved into. My apologies.
What @lacemaker3 said LOL. They are already answered what I would have answered, except in far more detail. With the backup method available, the e-check is most likely not even being used. Additionally, with the info that PP may still fund the transaction if funds are not immediately avl, depending on their risk assessment (and IMO also the $$ amount, which is probably a part of the risk assessment), I'm not sure we can really be certain about anything in this scenario.
I should have been clearer, that I do believe PP can 'cover' some of the payments, subject to dollar amounts & risk assessment. I wouldn't expect a blanket covering though. It's like back in the day, B&M banks sometimes covered overdrafts for excellent customers, employees, etc.
Most of us who are regular buyers/seller are going to have backup methods avl, so for that reason, I'm thinking that a test case isn't really likely to result in any definitive info. Thank you @lacemaker3 though for at least proving that you can still select an e-check via PP, b/c I wasn't even sure about that anymore. For me, there are still questions with this whole e-check process, but I don't think we can easily replicate the exact scenario we would need to replicate to put the issue to bed in my mind.
I will say one thing, I'm sure glad e-checks are still rare these days LOL.
And with the test we ran on my account we have shown that an Echeck shows to a seller just as any other payment received by a buyer which does mean that PayPal has to be guaranteeing the funds / fronting the funds for the buyer.
