Paypal to hold funds in reserve

[prescott9376]

Hello anyone else had this Email from Paypal.
I have given a full explanation on the Auction Payments Page

As part of our ongoing effort to make PayPal an even safer place for you and your customers to do business, we're holding a percentage of the total payments you receive each day as a reserve in your account. This reserve helps make sure that you have money in your PayPal balance to cover any payment reversals or chargebacks. We're going to start holding 100.00% of your daily sales until you reach a minimum reserve of 102.71 USD.

I know it says dollars but it must also refer to UK as mine are on hold.

[BordersBargains]

Makes you hope we will see other payment options here soon although it probably is annoying for them to get it going

[prescott9376]

I stand to be corrected but I seem to remember Ebid did use an alternative to Paypal when I started.
Trouble was & still is a lot of buyers here are visitors they may not want the bother of signing up to a new payment system but mopst will have a Paypal account.

After doing some digging, Though I cant be certain, jt would seem that the common feature with those being hit with a reserve is Micro payment accounts. Very low fees so very low profitability.

[tony41]

There are TWO threads with the same title in two different sections of the Forum. Can the OP please merge these two threads. It would make things much simpler and avoid missing replies on one thread only. Perhaps close this thread and kee the one in "Auction Payments" thread (the logical place for it.

[theElench]

That would be helpful.

I'm also reading replies to the OP's thread on obay. While some replies there are mentioning Micro-Payments so that might be a trigger for these e-mails, others are not mentioning micro-payments. One I've just read says they are not on the micro-payments scheme, have used their account for buying (since being transferred to MP) and been told that their Reserve is set at $1000.

I should add that I still haven't had any notification of this from PP. Could that be because I've not sold anything on ebid / PP since August and will only have this sprung on me when my next sale happens? If it does I'll be complaining to the FCA again about PP. I'm pretty sure that if a change in T&Cs materially changes the relationship between company and account holder, it must be notified to me before it comes into effect. I think holding my funds indefinitely is pretty "material".

My relationship with PP has gone from "Instant Access" to "Occasional Access" when PP allows me to sign-in using a land-line (which isn't very often. Now I'm facing the possibility of the proceeds from everything I sell on ebid disappearing into PP which might mean I can't get at my money until 90 days after I close the account.

Isn't it time for the Management of the site to become involved??? and try to get some clarification from PP (Or provide an alternative). There is little point my selling here if it's quite possible that the only way to see my money is either wait a year or three. The only alternative being to cut myself out the integrated checkout by closing my PP account.

[astral276]

I very much doubt that it has anything to do with making PayPal a 'safer place'. More likely it's to make PayPal more money from the interest earned on all the people's money held in their account.

[theElench]

I'd agree with you about the interest. Something else I've read somewhere is that PP uses all the money saved in people's PP accounts to enable instant payments. Effectively they credit one account with the cash from others before the payment works its way through the banking system.

Look at the PP boards any day of the week and the number of "My account / payments have been put on hold" threads is shocking and this seems normal, it's been the same for as long as I've been looking at them.

Because of the difficulties I'm still having accessing my account without a mobile, I now transfer my account balance to the bank account at every opportunity. I advise everyone I know to do the same because I no longer trust PP to make my funds available when I need them. I can still spend my money if it's in the bank which I can't if PP freeze it or deny me access to it.

I can imagine PP's funds have been depleted by the loss of obay seller's balances and even more as news of the "mobile access only" spreads. Without certainty about this new policy and whether or not I will be able to get at my money, I'll be making even greater efforts to keep my money out of the PP account.

They will only get one payment to hang onto and if they do I'll be heading for the "Close your account" page immediately after. Sadly that will probably mean an end to selling on ebid as well as I can't see too many buyers wanting to send me payments by bank transfers.

[BigKidsAttic]

Hello anyone else had this Email from Paypal.
I have given a full explanation on the Auction Payments Page

As part of our ongoing effort to make PayPal an even safer place for you and your customers to do business, we're holding a percentage of the total payments you receive each day as a reserve in your account. This reserve helps make sure that you have money in your PayPal balance to cover any payment reversals or chargebacks. We're going to start holding 100.00% of your daily sales until you reach a minimum reserve of 102.71 USD.

I know it says dollars but it must also refer to UK as mine are on hold.

Not sure if i've had one of those emails as I usually ignore most of them.
However, I have been recently receiving one saying that due to my activity etc.. I am eligable for a Loan of up to £2000. And a couple of days ago, they even phoned my to offer me said loan.
Lucky me?

[madelaine]

I always withdraw every time my balance reaches £50 unless I'm actually planning to buy something very soon.

[buttons-and-bows]

from google

Why did I get a reserve?

Reserves are placed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis. A reserve may be placed if we believe there's a higher level of risk associated with your PayPal account. Ordinarily, if you have a reserve on your account and receive a chargeback or dispute, we'll deduct that amount from your available balance and not from any reserve balance. However, if a seller goes out of business or stops processing payments through PayPal, we'll use any reserve to cover future payment reversals.

We may consider a list of factors and how they change over time, including (but not limited to):

• Your payment processing history with PayPal and other providers
• Whether your industry has a higher likelihood of chargebacks or refunds
• Whether your account has an elevated numbers of customer claims and disputes
• Your business and/or personal credit history
• Whether you're selling products or services in advance (preselling orders)
• Your delivery time frames - whether there are extended delivery timeframes

We review the account periodically to determine whether the reserve should be removed or adjusted. Reserves may be eligible for the reduction or removal with positive changes to key areas such as performance, industry, claims reduction, etc.


In other words don't sneeze