Paying for goods through PayPal

I’ve setup my Monzo CA in Paypal to test it out. I’ve just gone to make a purchase and it says it’s being paid by echeque. I’ve searched Paypal but still can’t figure out what this means or why but it says it takes 5-7 days to process. I guess what I should have actually done is added the Monzo card as a Mastercard debit so it uses it like a regular credit card?

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Why has my payment been sent as an eCheque?

A payment will be sent as an eCheque if your PayPal balance is not enough to cover the payment and you don’t have a card and a bank linked to your account.

With eCheques, your bank account will be debited when the payment is initiated. However, the recipient will typically receive the money 4 - 5 working days later.

To see the status of your eCheque payment:

Go to Activity.
Use the date range, ‘Advanced search’ options or the keyword search box to find the payment and then check the status.
Cleared: The transfer to the recipient has completed.
Uncleared: The transaction is still processing from the bank.
Failed: We were unable to obtain the money from your bank so the payment to the recipient hasn’t completed.
Cancelled: You’ve cancelled the eCheque. If you cancel an eCheque the money will still be debited from your bank account, but will be credited to your PayPal account balance.
You can see the expected clearing date of your eCheque on the Transaction Details page. Just click the payment in your Activity.

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Thanks I did read that. I’m just going to assume that Paypal hasn’t verified the Monzo account yet.

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I read that to mean that it has been sent as an eCheque because only your bank account was attached (without direct debit set up?) to PayPal and didn’t have your card, linked to that account, attached as well.

I always thought eCheque was essentially direct debit. They send the request for the amount that way, which is why funds don’t clear for a few days (and the seller is updated about this, so they don’t send you anything until it does clear).

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Thanks I didn’t realise that until now. I’m trying to cancel it with the vendor because I sure as heck don’t want to wait a week for it to be confirmed.

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Payments on PayPal via bank account can take a while to come through. I received the products I ordered before it came out on Monzo.

One thing which would be nice is to map the PayPal transaction ID so we know what company the payment was to. I had to look up on PayPal reference manually.

Also, as the reference was shown as the note - I couldn’t add a comment to help me remember in future.

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This happens to my Paypal payments. Anybody hazard a guess as to why? Just as you get used to instant notifications you have to go back to the lifelong habit of remembering expenditure.

I learnt very recently what an eCheque was.

It’s used by some instead of sending a bank transfer as a form of payment (Direct Debit)

You are able to buy something using DD and the item will be dispatched that day before the payment is taken, this isn’t possible with eCheque. I assume it’s used because people are able to buy something when they actually have no money in their account and still receive the item. (this is possible) With eCheque you have to wait before the transfer has completed for the item to be sent. Really annoying. I no longer use it and just pay by :credit_card:

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Ultimately this is a shortcoming of the way Direct Debits are handled. Vendors must give you (seven days?) notice before taking a direct debit, so invariably a new transaction won’t be taken via PP if you chose bank transfer as the method. PP reduce the risk (to them) of it failing by using one of your assigned credit/debit cards on your account as “backup”. But if you choose not to use a backup card - or don’t have a valid one on your PP account the vendor is told the payment is in the form of an “eCheque” and advised not to send the goods until the DD is submitted.

So if you want the instant (-ish - PP don’t always submit instantaneously for some types of transaction) notifications you are best reverting to using your Monzo debit card as the preferred form of payment for any PP transactions. But remember to keep it updated when you get a new card, etc.

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Yet another reason to avoid PayPal. Even if they’re the only payment processor option, I find things go smoother for me if I just pay with my debit card instead of using my PayPal account (i.e. treat PayPal like SagePay – a basic card acquirer).

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Paypal has an option called ‘Pay after delivery’ if you are paying via bank (DD). You might be using that unintentionally, login to your paypal account to check.

https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/what-is-pay-after-delivery-faq918

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