Can You Cancel a Completed PayPal Transaction? PayPal Dispute Explained

Hey there! Some links on this page are affiliate links which means that, if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I greatly appreciate your support!

Last Updated on 2 years by Komolafe Bamidele

PayPal is one of the best and safest payment methods in the world today. That helps people to easily send and receive funds of which the PayPal dispute dialogue can be used to rectify any failed transaction.

Is PayPal Safe and Legit? 

Is PayPal Safe and Legit? 

Moreover, as everything on earth today has flaws, PayPal does not have a 100% secure process; 

Hackers can track and hack someone’s account by using some hacking software.

PayPal Inc. crafted a dispute that users can use to trace and settle some technical issues which may arise due to some issues from PayPal sites DNS or server.

Meanwhile, when such issues arise, both the sender of the fund and the end receiver have the right to query each other, and this results in PayPal disagreement or a PayPal dispute.

If you have an eCommerce website or platform where you integrated PayPal as a method of receiving payment, you may have come across some customers who may claim that they have not received the product they paid for, etc.

In some cases, such customers may decide to give your platform a bad rating and a negative review. 

In this guide, we will give you detailed info on how to go about PayPal disputes and how you can prevent any false claims from customers.

Can You Stop a Pending PayPal Transaction?

Can You Stop a Pending PayPal Transaction?

Before we elucidate on this, have in mind that pending transactions result when you have successfully made a payment and you have been notified by your card user,

but it has not gotten to the end-user that is meant to receive the fund.

While you have a pending transaction, it will hurt your PayPal account or the credit card you used for the payment (the available balance will not correspond with the transactions you’ve made).

Moreover, when you cancel a pending transaction, you need to contact the merchant that you used to make your transaction.

If you used a bank or PayPal for your transaction, simply contact your bank or PayPal customer service for a dispute.

Why You Can’t Cancel a Pending Payment on PayPal?

Why You Can’t Cancel a Pending Payment on PayPal?

Depending on the issue you’re facing in your PayPal dashboard, Sometimes you may not see a “cancel” button after making a transaction because it may be that the email address you send the PayPal fund to is not registered. 

Or it may be that the end-user (the recipient) has not yet confirmed his/her email address.

If the end-user has a verified PayPal email address, you will see the “Cancel button” next to the transaction details; with that button, you’ll be able to cancel a pending payment.

Moreover, when you send a payment through PayPal and it reads unclaimed, it means that the recipient email is not registered with PayPal.

How To Cancel a PayPal Payment Step by Step Guide

As it is very easy to make PayPal transactions, it’s also important to learn how to cancel PayPal transactions in case it happens that you made a wrong transaction or maybe you transferred twice to an end-user.

Moreover, if you are not familiar with PayPal you may not know how to cancel a PayPal transaction.

 Meanwhile, you’re in the right place as we’re going to show you a step by step guide on how to cancel a PayPal payment.

Method 1; To Cancel a PayPal Payment  (Detailed)

Method 1 To Cancel a PayPal Payment  (Detailed)
  1. To get started you have to log in to your PayPal account. After a successful login, go to the “Activity page”. On your Activity page, locate “All Transactions”. 
  2. On this page (all transactions) you’ll be able to see the list of all the transactions you’ve been making with your PayPal account. 
  3. Now locate the exact payment you wish to cancel. If the payment you wish to cancel has not been claimed or received by the end-user, you’ll see a “Cancel” link in that transaction you intend to cancel.
  4. To proceed with the cancellation of the transaction, click on the “Cancel” link and then click on “Cancel Payment”. 

By cancelling your payment, your money will return to your account within some minutes.

Method 2; To Cancel a PayPal Payment  (List)

Method 2 To Cancel a PayPal Payment  (List)

Follow the below steps to cancel your PayPal payments:

  • Log in to your PayPal account Next, locate “Activity” (you’ll find this at the top of your page). 
  • Click on “All Transactions” Trace the payment you wish to cancel. 
  • When the new page loads, click on the “Cancel Payment” button/link to cancel the payment. 

Note: if you made the transaction from your bank credit card, after the successful cancellation of the PayPal transaction. the returned money may end up entering your PayPal account instead of your bank account.

When this occurs, you can easily transfer the money to your bank account with a simple click.

How Long Does it Take for a Canceled Payment to be Refunded?

Although cancelling a PayPal transaction usually takes some time, If you follow the right cancellation process, you’ll surely get back your money either to your PayPal account or to your bank account.

When you made a transaction through PayPal and later cancelled it, 

what you’ll receive into your account is called a chargeback; as it was initially your money before you sent it out.

Moreover, in the U.S, the Fair Credit Billing Act will allow you to demand a chargeback from the bank you used to make the transaction for about two months (60 days) right from the day you initiated the payment.

the U.S, the Fair Credit Billing Act
source; lexingtonlaw.com

If you’re familiar with PayPal, you must have known that cancelling anything that relates to payment in the PayPal platform usually takes some period before it will be finalized.

They have three (3) ways and their duration which we got from the PayPal site; on when you can expect your cancelled PayPal transaction from the date of cancellation.

If your method of payment is debit/credit card or in some cases bank account, the payment you cancelled on PayPal will be refunded to you within the space of 5 to 30 days.

When you perform a transaction directly from your PayPal account balance, the payment you cancelled will return to your account in the period of 5 to 7 days.

When you initiate both a credit/debit card and your PayPal account balance and your pending payment is automatically cancelled, you’ll receive your funds immediately or within a few days.

Can You Get Scammed on PayPal?

Although PayPal works with users’ email addresses as their account numbers for receiving or transacting funds, there are so many hackers on the internet today.

So getting scammed on PayPal is very possible. We have gotten so many users complaining about how they got scammed through their PayPal account.

Meanwhile, there are some ways you can use to prevent getting scammed from your PayPal account. 

To avoid this, never respond to any notifications telling you that you owe some amount of money; probably win money from a lottery ticket, casino games, black Fridays, etc.

Avoid giving out your PayPal email address to untrusted websites or individuals.

Will PayPal Refund You If You Get Scammed?

PayPal Dispute Explained

Depending on how the fraudulent activity happened, you can likely recover your money back when you report to PayPal.

For example – if you purchased a product online via PayPal and the product you ordered never arrive you or you realize that the platform you used to make the purchase is not genuine, 

you can request for cancellation through your PayPal account dashboard. (We discussed how to resolve this in this guide).

Moreover, the money may linger up to 30 days but the amount you paid will surely return to your PayPal account incomplete.

Can You Track a PayPal Transaction?

PayPal has strong security which helps individuals to recover fraudulent activities that are attached to their PayPal account.

PayPal has a transaction ID for every transaction that is carried out through your PayPal account.

 With this feature, you can track the current status of all the transactions you’ve made using PayPal.

Your PayPal transaction ID can be found on the Payment Quick Status page for all your PayPal transaction history.

Is PayPal Safe to Receive Money from Strangers?

While all the systems most especially money transaction systems are not 100% risk-free,

 PayPal can be safe when used to receive funds from strangers but you have to be security conscious to avoid giving out your PayPal email address to hackers that may, in turn, steal money from your account.

No money transaction platform is 100% risk-free; even our local banks.

Is it Better to Pay With a Debit Card or PayPal Balance?

Is it Better to Pay With a Debit Card or PayPal Balance?

When using PayPal to make payments or to make transactions, we recommend using your PayPal account instead of using debit/credit cards

as you can easily use your PayPal account to cancel, track and recover your funds easily within a short period.

From thousands of user reviews on the internet, it is very safe to link your local bank account to your PayPal.

PayPal has advanced security that will secure your linked bank account as well as your debit cards from any scammer that may tamper with it.

Wrapping Up 

This guide explained how to resolve any PayPal dispute you can ever encounter while making transactions through your PayPal account.

Also, we answered some questions that may have been in your mind to ask the public.

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
I agree to have my personal information transfered to MailChimp ( more information )
Join over 3.000 visitors who are receiving our newsletter and learn how to optimize your blog for search engines, find free traffic, and monetize your website.
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
Share this

Discover more from Zenith Techs

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.