Paypal bank transfer, why is it so slow?

Nicely put. I've been waiting 6 days now...

ive been waiting nearly 5 days now for my money to go into my bank account. Paypal sucks

Paypal does not live up to its claims for easy money transfer. I have just opened an account for my partner to receive funds but it is now blocked because they noticed "unusual activity" on the account, ie the sending of payments. Utterly astonishing and their customer service is useless. The whole process has been fraught with difficulty with further requests for information once one thinks all has been provided. Had the process been transparent then it would have been easier. As it is I can only say that Paypal transfers are not as easy as they claim, are extremely slow and sometimes require fees to be paid to withdraw the money. Definitely not recommended!

I am not really sure how paypal works behind the scene to pay from one paypal client to another. But as it is there system the account to account transfer should be immediate or even if via a manual queue be done within a few minutes (depends on volume and flow by payments).

The point here is paypal to bank. This process should be different than the internal paypal to paypal process as paypal needs the correct banking details to make payment. there are also restrictions from a 'cash' movement point of view in different countries and currencies on when banks will receive the funds from paypal and then be able to execute the deposits on the correct account.

Even the 'bank' side may be manual and this could also take time.

There is no real instant 'online banking' with immediate transfer of funds. That is only in the movies!!
Currently online banking is a format for users to use cashflow online rather than write a check (do people really still do that- if so why??), or physically go to a cash machine or bank. The process behind the online banking can view the same way as writing a check (debit of the account) but instead of the length of time for the check clearing - when banks will send money back and forth to cover the check - the time is reduced as bank A needs to verify funds are on the sending account before they can be sent and then Bank B needs to receive the funds and verify the account to credit is correct.

Many small and local banks still handle a few steps of the process manually as people are cheaper than some of the technology out there in the banking world. Yes even in the UK and US!

Global banks also still handle portions of this manually but that would be based on exceptions - such as an IBAN or accoutn number not matching as part of an automated system. This 'queue' is then manually viewed to correct or investigate why the issue occurred.

More often than not it is an issue on the sending individual or sending bank not having sent the correct information.

This is a similar when sending money abroad in the same currency - some nuacnes are there as each local bank has their own process. If you are sending corss-currency Briths Pounds to Euros or Dollars then the processis a bit more complicated on how the currency will be exchanged on the sending side or receiving side and can also be a bit manual and then there are the fees - international transfer, exchange fees etc....

Hope this helps on why a transfer may be delayed, but a bank must receive the money, verify the money and correct credit to an account. Not all banks are created equal.....

I think it will be slow because they must wait some time to see if a fraudulent card has been used. If it has you will have lost your item and your £230. Paypal never lose a penny. It used to make me laugh that if you sent a cheque the seller would wait for days to let the cheque cash but sent items straight away with paypal. The consequences of a bounced cheque or a paypal chargeback are the same. The seller loses everything.

Ahh! I am a new time buyer and didn't realise this! I don't think I would have used ebay to sell my item had I realised how crap paypal are at transferring funds! I am currently waiting on £230 stuck in the system.

Funny how the money leaves my account almost instantly! Shame it doesnt work both ways!

Lesson learnt: DO NOT USE EBAY IF YOU NEED CASH QUICK!

Paypal is not only slow moving money into your bank account but have been know to withdraw money from peoples bank accounts...................................................... After people have closed the paypal account.

What ebay and Paypal do is pretended they are not the same company when it suites them and the same when it does suite them.

NoPal is not regulated by the Sec or FSA and they spend a fortune lobbying/bribing politicians but you real have to look to find information because ebay is googles bigest customer and they activly supress negative views of Paypal member

I closed my PayPal account down in support of WikiLeaks, but also because I was unhappy with the fees and how long a transfer took. Unfortunately though, it's very difficult to do business on eBay without PayPal. It is possible when sellers accept cheques or postal orders, but it's so slow and it's really annoying that you can't use other payment forms on eBay such as Google Checkout.

It seems Paypal like many others in the banking world is making money out of delayed transfers. So vote with your feet. I have just closed a bank account after being told it would take 3 working days to make a transfer.

well both ways the money is delayed... even when you send money to a company they just hold the amount from your account balance (the money is still in your account and till the transaction complete you can even cancel the transaction).

Maybe they wait for a specific number of transactions in order to proceed to execute them.

I made several transfers from my bank account to my Paypal account... the last transfer I did never arrived...but they disccounted it from my bank account. where is my Money? Paypal sucks!

Holding a big ball of money, constantly going in and out, is a pretty nice thing. Use it as collateral. Someone is making bank, but who is it?

I have to join all gathered here in pain and misery. PayPal is really breaking my balls here as I depend on a small business of mine. Even though I always transfer myself money in advance, the 3-4 days wait is bullshit (takes like 2 days to complete and then 4-5 still to show on my bank account). PayPal's doings are outrageous and unacceptable. I'm glad there are websites like this - maybe some day something will change for the better!

They hold on to the tranferred money for as long as possible so that they can enjoy the benefit of receiving the interest accrued which, I imagine, would be quite significant considering the amount of other peoples' money held in 'transfer limbo' by these financial rapists.

if they say 3-5 days it'll be millisecond accurate on the latter prediction..

but hey it's paypal, they have the market hold on e-commerce, they can do whatever they want and ignore complaints..it's not the banks incompetence, just watch your account on a bank>paypal transaction..

You are confusing different issues here. Paypal is not a bank transfer. Paypal is an intermediary and they hold your money, and charge a fee.

If you make a direct bank to bank transfer between banks within the UK clearing system it is usually immediate, or at worst, overnight, this has been the case since about 3 years ago. It is also free if done online, at least with my bank it is.

Hi.

I'm from Poland, recently moved with my business to UK.
It's soooo frustrating...

The slowness of UK banks is legendary among the Poles, back in PL, the money is always on your account on the next day.

Usually people say, it's because Polish banking system is younger, thus, more modern.
I no longer believe that.
I think British banks hold your money for a day or two, OR LONGER on purpose - for that short period when they hold it, their, eh, I forgot how it's called, In Polish it's called "unit of allocation" - is higher.
In practice, that means they seem to have more money than they really have, and thus their stocks etc. are worth more. Banker would explain it better.

It makes no difference if they do it to one person, but if they do it to millions...

One huge multinational bank in Poland used to hold your money for extra 24 hours ages ago,
made people rage & quit it.

I bought a coffee machine online via PayPal but when I went to pick it up having been assured it was in stock (turns out it was a regular shop) they did not have it on the floor although it was "in stock". I asked for an immediate refund. The initial transaction was taken out of my account by Paypal immediately. However, although my Paypal act shows that the money has been refunded - this is not reflected in my bank account. I cannot contact a person at Paypal only robots. Help.

"You asked us to transfer $850.00 USD from PayPal to your bank account, and we're processing it now. It usually takes 3-4 business days for transfers like this to go through, so you should see the money in your bank account by Feb 4, 2011." I was wondering what "transfers like this" means in this message from paypal. Do you suppose there are other kinds of transfers...a penny at a time, counted out by an elderly lady standing over the counter at the drugstore....? Maybe we're getting the fast-track--just 5 days.

Paypal closed my account because I hadn't used it for a few years even though I had still had money on my account and they won't let me have it back so it's lost in the system somewhere.