[Due to a recent increase in the use of Paypal], I thought I might take a moment to explain a couple of things about making payments with Paypal.

While Paypal can be quick and easy, there is something that buyers need to be aware of that may affect the speed at which sellers can ship out your items.

Paypal does not divulge this information to buyers, and it is left up to sellers to explain it. Hopefully in the near future, Paypal will take care of informing buyers themselves.

For the record, there are two types of Paypal Payments:

1. Instant
2. eCheque

Instant Payments Occur where:

1. Payment is funded from your Paypal cash balance
2. Payment is funded from your linked Credit Card
3. Payment is funded from your linked debit bank account but ONLY if you also have a Credit Card on file with Paypal as a "backup funding source".

If a seller receives a notification of an instant payment, then the payment is guaranteed and they are in a position whereby they can ship your order as soon as possible.

This is the bit that Paypal don’t tell you about.

An eCheque payment occurs where you have funded your payment with a debit bank account, and you have no Credit Card on file with Paypal as a ‘back up funding source’.

It also occurs if you manually select the "eCheque" option, even though the options for "Instant" and "Credit Card"  payments are also offered.

This type of payment is literally a ‘cheque’, and as such, is subject to a clearance period. Like a cheque, while your bank account may be debited within 24 hours, the payment is not actually transferred to the seller for anywhere between 4 and 10 days, and in some cases even longer.

Unfortunately, the buyer gets an email from Paypal that suggests they had made an instant payment.

This leads to much confusion and angst!

In my experience so far, the shortest time an eCheque has cleared for me as a seller, is 5 days, and the longest has been 10 days.

Obviously, this eCheque process can considerably delay the postage of your item, as Paypal alerts the seller not to ship goods until a confirmation of payment clearance has been received.

Please be patient with your sellers if you have paid them by eCheque.

I recommend that you submit any complaints you have about the lengthy delays involved in processing eCheque payments to Paypal.

One more thing that may delay postage of your item is that some sellers are small or hobby sellers –they rely on receiving your payment in full in order to be able to pay the post office for postage of your order.

Unfortunately it can take between 3 and 7 days for a Paypal cash balance to transfer over to a bank account, at which stage access to funds is then available with which postage can be paid.

The percentage of sellers that need to do this is probably very low, but if in doubt, prior to bidding or buying, a simple inquiry to a seller asking about their delivery schedule is all that it takes!