Why a Pending Payment Is Worth Understanding
PayPal isn't a niche payment option for your clients. Roughly 87.5% of online shoppers have used PayPal at some point, and the platform counts 439 million active users worldwide. That means a pending status on a client payment isn't an edge case you'll rarely see. It's something you're likely to run into regularly if PayPal is one of your payment options.
The good news is that pending doesn't mean failed. It means PayPal is running a check before releasing the money, and in almost every case, that check resolves on its own within a predictable window.
Why PayPal Payments Go Pending
A payment goes pending for one of two main reasons, according to PayPal's own help center.
Both situations exist for the same reason. PayPal's pending status is designed to protect both sides of a transaction from fraud and confirm that funds genuinely exist before money moves.
eCheck Payments Take Longer to Clear
If your payment was converted to an eCheck, the wait is longer than a standard transfer. PayPal's own support documentation states that eChecks typically take 4 to 7 business days to clear, and weekends and holidays don't count toward that window.
This distinction matters because a standard PayPal payment usually settles quickly once both accounts are verified, while an eCheck follows the same timeline as a traditional bank transfer. If you're waiting on a client payment and it shows as pending, checking whether it converted to an eCheck tells you immediately whether you're looking at a same-day resolution or a week-long one.
What You Can Do About a Pending Payment
A pending payment isn't stuck forever, and there are two real options while you wait.
- Check the Activity tab in your PayPal account to see the expected clearing date for that specific transaction.
- Cancel the payment directly from Activity if it's still pending and you no longer want it to go through.
If a payment goes completely unclaimed, meaning the recipient never confirms their account at all, PayPal automatically refunds it back to the sender after 30 days.
For a recurring client payment, this is worth flagging the first time it happens so it doesn't catch you off guard every renewal cycle. Once a client's account is fully verified, later payments from that same person typically clear without going pending again, since the flag that triggered the hold the first time no longer applies.
How We Set Up PayPal
Connecting PayPal takes a bit more setup than connecting Stripe, since it runs through a PayPal developer app rather than a one-click authorization.
- Confirm you have a PayPal business account, since this integration requires one.
- Create a developer app in PayPal's Live mode and generate your Client ID and Secret.
- Configure a webhook using the URL provided in your dashboard, so PayPal can send payment events through.
- Share your PayPal account, Client ID, Secret, and Webhook ID with support so the connection can be finished on our end.
The full steps are in our PayPal setup guide. Once it's connected, we take zero commission on anything that comes through it, across more than 200 countries.
If you're deciding between PayPal and Stripe rather than running both, it helps to see the actual numbers side by side rather than guessing which one costs less for your specific client base.
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If you're still deciding between the two gateways, it's worth reading how Stripe and PayPal fees actually compare before you commit to one over the other.
