Business account and monthly release limits

[Breakthecycle2]

For those who make and use these, are you still getting the immediate release of a predetermined amount..i.e...$500? I made one yesterday and got a payment, but it was withheld with no messages or emails or anything.

[phaz0rz]

Release amounts are fairly random and are calculated by Paypal during your first few sales based on how risky they see your business being. You aren't guaranteed to get a release amount though. In some cases (even with business accounts) Paypal will choose to apply 21-day holds to all payments rather than putting a release amount on the account.

Paypal 21-day holds suck far worse than Ebay holds. Unlike an Ebay hold, uploading tracking to Paypal has little impact on the amount of time the money is held. They will still hold the payments for 21 days even if tracking shows delivery after 3 days.

I prefer to upgrade personal accounts rather than creating business accounts. If you wait until payment holds are gone from a personal account, it makes the transition to a business account much smoother.