How long is the pending on PayPal?

Question

Someone sent me a payment on July 2nd, and the payment appeared on the 'Payments Received thing' on Paypal for me immediately. But it said Pending. How long does it take til that payment is cleared. Because it's been about 4 days. Somebody said it would usually take about 3 days at the most. But it's been more than that. Does it make a difference where that person is located? Like the payment I received came from Germany. I'm all the way over in California, USA.

Answer 1

Becuase the payment is still showing "pending" the buyer used a bank account for the payment.  A bank account only payment is sent as an eCheck which has to go through the Automated Clearing House process.  A US eCheck takes 3-4 business days to clear, an international eCheck takes 5-7 days to clear.  Please keep in mind, these time frames are considering that they clear the sender's bank account on the first attempt.  If it fails the sender's bank account, PayPal will make a second attempt to extract the funds, so in other words, possibly double the clearing time.  You should be able to view the transaction details in your "History" page of your PayPal account and view the "expected clearing date" which is an estimated time as long as everything goes right the first time around.  Bottom line is, DO NOT ship the product until the eCheck clears.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Did they pay with a credit card or with a check. Checks can take weeks outside the US