Paypal- echeque

[Dollie]

As I now cannot sell on Ebay without having a paypal account I had no choice but to sign up to paypal. I was lead to believe that this would make transactions a lot quicker and be better for me and the buyer. my first sale this way was, and the money was in my account overnight. However, What I now find is that someone has purchased from me using something called an echque, which is going through my paypal account, and it will remain uncleared for the best part of two weeks. I can't really understand this, as is this person were to have sent me a paper chq in the post, I would have been able to bank it and clear it quicker. Can you tell me if I have missed a point, as I still remain a bit unsure of this paypal malarkey. TIA

[Ethel]

It is quite simple. PayPal will not release the funds to you until it has the funds itself - this is usually very quick as you have already discovered.

eCheques are used when the instant payment has failed - usually because there is no valid credit card on the buyer's PayPal account, perhaps because it has expired or been cancelled.
So now PayPal has to request the money from the buyer's current account (no automatic payment authority set up) and wait for the funds to arrive.

There is one big advantage to eCheques, particularly if it concerns a large sum. There can never be a chargeback as can happen with credit card funded payments.
Once the money is in your account, you can be certain it will never be claimed back.

If the buyer were to send you a cheque, he would have 7 days to post it, then you would have to either go to the bank or post it to your bank, then wait. So eCheques are still more convenient than cheques.

[Dollie]

Thank you Ethel for explaining it so well. Seems clearer now. Cheers x