Paypal Held Payment payments / Temporary Hold.  Funds Reversal

This guide is designed to provide information to anyone who has had a paypal payment put on 'temporary hold'.

What happens:  Someone purchases one of your items and pays with paypal.  You post the item.  Then you receive an email from paypal telling you that payment has been 'held'.  This can be anytime from one to thirty or more days.

This basically means the buyers credit cards has rejected the payment or it's a stolen card. Paypal sometimes limits buyers accounts.  Paypal will never tell you the reason.

The disputed funds will be 'held' by paypal while they 'investigate'.  It is highly likely they will email you and ask you to provide information about the item purchased, even though paypal is owned by ebay they still seem to need to ask you for the auction details!

Action to take:  Reply to the email from paypal with the request for information.

Contact the buyer, be polite and don't threaten them, sometimes it's a genuine mistake/error and the buyer will pay you via another method. 

Check your email, paypal may ask for additional information

The buyer may resolve the issues with paypal and the payment will be put back into your account.

See if you are eligible to claim through the Seller protection programme (See Paypal).

If you are eligible: Follow instructions from paypal and do it ASAP, there are time limits on claims

If you are not eligible:  The payment will finally be reversed (back to the buyer)  You can try contacting paypal 08707 307 191.

How to avoid held payments : Always check the payment to see if you are eligible for seller protection, it will be in green or orange>