PayPal launched Funds Now, giving sellers instant access to payments from online sales. The timing is interesting as it comes as eBay begins rolling out managed payments, where sellers will have to wait for disbursements, with a lag of a minimum of 2 – 4 days.
While PayPal announced the launch today, it has been notifying sellers by email since August. The two major benefits it advertised in the emails to sellers:
– We don’t hold or delay your funds – even if there’s a dispute.
– Money from your daily sales will hit your PayPal balance in seconds for completed transactions. You can count on it.
In its announcement on the PayPal corporate blog, the company said,
“In the world of payments, funding delays of seven to 21 days for small businesses have been far too common. Those funding delays hinder the ability of small businesses to invest back into their businesses, pay their bills, and serve their customers.
“With Funds Now, we aspire to set a new expectation in payments – that immediate access to funds should be the norm rather than the exception for small businesses in good standing. In fact, Funds Now has already been extended to more than one million businesses using PayPal at no extra cost.”
Interestingly, a reader wrote to us this week highlighting a problem they recently encountered. One of the seller’s payments was being held where the customer had already received the item and given feedback. “Normally PayPal would release the funds 3 days after confirmed delivery and if feedback was received, they would release the funds immediately,” the seller told us, but said when they called to report it, a PayPal customer service rep said, “Due to an update in our agreement with eBay we can no longer release payments that they have on hold in your account.”
We sent an inquiry to PayPal this afternoon seeking clarification.
In today’s announcement from PayPal, there’s some fine print about the Funds Now program, including the following:
– Funds Now is available to select PayPal account holders in good standing and may be withdrawn, suspended, or modified at PayPal’s discretion. Exceptions apply.
– To help keep accounts secure, in rare cases certain delays may occur.
You can read today’s full PayPal announcement about Funds Now here.
Hey Paypal……Sleazy and no better than fleecebag. Funds now are available to account holders in good standing and may be withdrawn, modified or suspended at paypigs .discretion—EXCEPTIONS APPLY.
MEANS….We are doing Funds Now to our favorites and screw the little guy who needs his money now.
Holding funds for new sellers is a good idea. It prevents the hit and run brigade from doing just that.
Would you like to pay for a premium item and find that the seller cashed up and split while
you were watching the tracking on an empty box ?
Many people are not aware that PayPal, being licensed in many states as a Money Transfer Agent, may have statutory restrictions on how long they have to complete the transfer and make the funds available to their intended recipient. Regardless of language in PayPal’s UA, they are not permitted to violate any laws pertaining to restrictions upon the type of license they hold. Thus the holding of funds beyond the specified period could result in PayPal not being able to business within the state.