What is an eCheque ?

By Kevin Button : Last Trading Post*

A lot of Buyers and quite a few sellers do not seem to know what an eCheque is, or how it works.

Firstly, an eCheque is :

"An eCheque is an electronic funds transfer that withdraws money directly from your bank account. It's just like writing a cheque, only it is done electronically. When you send money with an eCheque, the transaction will be held as pending for seven to nine working days, until the electronic funds have cleared you bank". 

Secondly, What is Instant Bank Transfer ?

When you add a bank account, complete bank funding, and add a credit card to your PayPal account, Instant Bank Transfer is the default method of payment. However, the method can be changed for each individual transaction.

Thirdly, why did I pay by eCheque and not Instant Bank Transfer, or why was I paying by Instant Bank Transfers before, but now I'm paying by eCheque ?

Once you have done the following  "add a bank account, complete bank funding, and add a credit card to your PayPal account " then you should be able to pay by Instant Bank Transfer. But if one of these has not been done, or one has expired e.g your credit card has gone past it's expiry date and you have not updated the information on Paypal then you will normally make a payment by eCheque instead.

I hope this will help explain how eCheques work and how they are used.

Please note all this information is based on the offical Paypal information, could change at any time and is only intended as a basic explanation of how Echeques work on Paypal. Please refer to the official Paypal site for a more detailed and up to date explanation.

*Copyright K Button Last Trading Post 2008