You sent money on PayPal, your Activity says Unclaimed or Pending, and the other person keeps telling you nothing has arrived. Or you are the one waiting: you got an email saying someone paid you, but there is no money in your balance.
PayPal's help centre names a small set of causes, and the fix depends on which one it is: the address you paid isn't linked to a verified PayPal account; the recipient has an account but their settings hold certain payments for them to accept by hand (a different currency, for example); or the recipient's account has a limitation. In every case there is a 30-day clock.
Tell which case you're in
PayPal's status guide defines what each label means. Find the payment in Activity and match the word you see:
- Unclaimed: "The recipient hasn't accepted or received your payment." PayPal automatically cancels unclaimed transactions after 30 days.
- Pending: PayPal is reviewing the transaction and will send the payment once your payment source is verified. An eCheck usually takes up to 7 business days to clear. Pending is also used when the recipient has to accept the payment.
- Held: PayPal is reviewing the transaction and has held the payment. PayPal points you to the Resolution Center for details.
- Denied: the recipient didn't accept the payment, and the money was credited back to you.
- Returned: the recipient didn't claim the payment within 30 days, so the money came back to you.
Cause 1: no verified PayPal account on that email or phone number
This is the most common reason. PayPal says a payment stays unclaimed when the email address or phone number it was sent to isn't registered to a verified PayPal account. The money is waiting for whoever owns that address to sign up or confirm it.
Before anything else, ask the recipient which email address or phone number their PayPal account actually uses, and compare it, character by character, with what you paid. If it doesn't match, cancel the payment (see below) and resend to the right address.
If the address is correct but the recipient has no account, they need to create one with that email, or add the email to their existing account and confirm it. Steps are in the recipient section below.
Cause 2: the recipient's settings hold the payment
PayPal explains that a payment can sit as pending or unclaimed when the recipient has chosen not to automatically accept certain payments, giving the examples of payments in a currency other than their preferred currency and payments from buyers with unconfirmed addresses.
These are Payment Receiving Preferences, which PayPal says are available on Business accounts. According to PayPal's help centre, a business can choose to block payments from customers without a confirmed address, payments in a currency the account doesn't hold, payments that reuse an invoice ID already used, and payments from customers in other countries. It can also choose whether incoming payments are converted to its primary currency or accepted in the currency they were sent in.
In this case the sender can't cancel the payment. PayPal says the recipient has 30 days to accept or deny it. If they accept, the money lands in their account; if they deny it, it goes back to you as Denied; if they do nothing, PayPal cancels it after 30 days and returns it.
Cause 3: the recipient's account is limited
PayPal describes a limitation as a restriction meaning "you won't be able to do certain things with your PayPal account", and says some features may be unavailable, affecting the ability to send and receive payments. The exact restrictions vary, and PayPal shows them in the account itself.
If you are the recipient, check the Resolution Center first, or click the bell icon at the top of your Dashboard. PayPal says that once you complete the requested steps, the review usually takes 3 business days, and some limitations lift as soon as you finish the steps (for example, changing your password and security questions). PayPal also says customer service usually can't lift a limitation over the phone. Be wary of emails claiming your account is limited: if the Resolution Center shows no limitation, PayPal says the email may be fake and asks you to forward it to phishing@paypal.com.
How long before an unclaimed payment comes back
PayPal's help centre is consistent on this: pending or unclaimed payments are automatically cancelled after 30 days and the money goes back to the original payment method. The status then changes to Returned.
Once it is returned, PayPal says money going back to a bank account may take up to 5 business days, and money going back to a credit or debit card may take up to 30 days.
If you are the sender: how to cancel
You don't have to wait for the 30 days if the payment is unclaimed because of the recipient's account status (for example, wrong email or no account). On the PayPal website:
- Go to Activity.
- Find the payment and click Cancel under it.
- Follow the steps on screen.
- Resend the money to the correct email address or phone number once the recipient confirms it.
If you are the sender: when there is no Cancel option
If you can't see Cancel, the recipient's own settings are probably holding the payment, and PayPal says only the recipient can accept or deny it. Ask them to log in and look for the pending payment. If the status has already changed to Completed, the payment was claimed; PayPal's advice is to ask the recipient for a refund through the payment in Activity. For a Goods and Services payment you can open a dispute in the Resolution Center within the filing timeframe; for Friends and Family payments PayPal says you can't open a dispute.
If you are the recipient: how to claim the money
PayPal says you need to have or create a PayPal account with a confirmed email address to claim the money. Which route you take depends on your situation:
- No PayPal account: sign up using the exact email address the money was sent to, then confirm that address. If you decide not to sign up, PayPal refunds the money to the sender.
- Account under a different email (web): go to Settings, click +Add in the Emails section, enter the address the money was sent to, then click the link in the confirmation email PayPal sends.
- Account under a different email (app): open the menu, go to Your Profile, then Contact info, select See All under Emails, choose Add a New Email, save it, and click the verification link in your inbox.
- Sent to an address you can't access: ask the sender to cancel the payment and resend it to your correct email address.
- Held by your own settings: accept or deny it within 30 days. On a Business account, you can change your Payment Receiving Preferences so future payments in other currencies are accepted automatically.
One safety note from PayPal: unexpected emails about money waiting for you can be phishing. PayPal asks you to forward a suspicious email to phishing@paypal.com and then delete it from your inbox.
If you collect payments from customers
If you take PayPal payments from customers rather than sending money to friends, a OneSol page gives you one link for all your profiles, and on the paid Pro plan you can take payments through your own PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay or Square account. The money still moves through PayPal, so the statuses above apply the same way.