Why is my payment on hold or unavailable?
Here are a few examples of why we may place payments on hold:
- You’re a new seller with PayPal or an established seller who opened a new account. New PayPal sellers can take time to build positive reputations.
- You haven’t sold in a while and are still building a positive seller reputation.
- Multiple customers reported problems or requested refunds.
- Your selling pattern appears to have changed or seems unusual.
- You’re selling higher-risk items such as event tickets, consumer electronics, travel packages, or gift cards.
- The payment is a personal remittance and not a commercial transaction. You’ll need to refund the payment and receive it by other means. If the person sending you money lives in Canada, the US, the UK, or in most European countries and regions, they can use Xoom.
Log in to your account and click on Know your options under your PayPal balance, to see if you can help to release your payments on hold.
You may be able to release eligible payments by following one of the below steps:
- Add Tracking. Use one of our approved shipping carriers and we’ll release the hold approximately 24 hours after the courier confirms delivery to the buyer’s address.
- Update the order status if the held payment is for a service or intangible item (e.g., piano lessons, e-book). We'll release the hold 7 days after you confirm the order status as Completed.
In rare cases, after these steps are completed, we may need to hold the payment for up to 21 days. For example, this can happen if we notice an unusual change in your selling patterns.
To add tracking information or update an order status:
- Go to your Activity.
- Find the purchase you want to update and click Get your money. If you sold a product, choose “Product” to add tracking information or print a shipping label. If you sold an intangible item or service, choose “Service or virtual product” to update the order status. You can update the order status to Completed, Pending, or Canceled.
- Click Submit.