- You can cancel a PayPal payment if the receiver of the money has not yet claimed it.
- Many forms of PayPal payments are processed immediately and cannot be canceled.
- If payment can't be canceled, you will have to ask for a refund or dispute it to PayPal.
So you just sent a PayPal payment but realized the amount was wrong? Or you suddenly decided that any amount was wrong and you no longer wish to send that given party any money? You can cancel certain types of PayPal payments easily.
On the other hand, some PayPal payments can't be canceled and your only recourse would be to ask for a refund or to dispute the charge with the company itself, if that's warranted.
Assuming you have sent a payment that requires the receiver to actively claim it, you may be able to cancel that payment and keep your cash.
Why can't I cancel a payment on PayPal?
In order to be canceled, payments must be in Pending or Unclaimed status. Since most PayPal payments go through instantaneously, this is most likely why you are unable to cancel a payment on PayPal.
PayPal automatically refunds pending and unclaimed payments after 30 days, so action is not necessarily required on your part if you send the payment to a non-existent email address.
How to cancel a PayPal payment
1. Log into your PayPal account and click on the tab Activity at the top of the screen.
Not all PayPal payments can be canceled. Those made to confirmed email addresses, for example, may transfer to the recipient immediately. Steven John/Insider2. Scroll down to locate the payment you want to cancel.
3. Click the word Cancel.
4. Click the Cancel Payment button to confirm.
Money may take several days to reappear in your account after a cancellation. Steven John/Insider
Steven John
Freelance Writer
Steven John is a freelance writer living near New York City by way of 12 years in Los Angeles, four in Boston, and the first 18 near DC. When not writing or spending time with his wife and kids, he can occasionally be found climbing mountains. His writing is spread across the web, and his books can be found at www.stevenjohnbooks.com.
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Did you know, if you accidentally transfer money to the wrong PayPal account, using your bank account funds, PayPal will not help you get that back? Neither will your bank. Neither will the police. Some local baseball moms are sharing their story so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
The Muskego Warriors U-12 baseball team is traveling to Cooperstown, New York this summer for a tournament. Warriors player Jake Ralston said the whole team is getting excited.
“It’s this big baseball trip,” he said. “We get to play baseball at these really nice turf fields.”
- Couple Accuses Local Financial Adviser Of Stealing More Than $80K
The players, and the parents have been fundraising for years.
Jake’s mom, Jenny Ralston, and some other parents are renting a house out there. She needed to transfer money to another parent, Jennifer Leto.
“I was paying the balance on the house,” Ralston explained, “and I asked if I could PayPal it to her. She said yes, so she sent me her email address.”
Only it was the wrong address. Off by a couple characters.
Ralston’s payment did go through to a J. Leto, just not Jennifer Leto as she intended.
“I asked Jen a couple days later if she received the payment and she said no.”
“When I saw her and she asked me that,” Leto admits, “we both just didn’t know what to say. We were all of a sudden fearing the worst.”
The payment of more than $1,200 went through to the wrong person. Because it wasn’t a scam, neither PayPal, Ralston’s bank, nor the police said there was anything they could do. PayPal suggested contacting the guy who did get the money.
“I continually tried to contact the person that I sent the money to,” Ralston explained. “I sent several emails. I tried calling him…He had a twitter account, so I tried tweeting him and he ignores everything I send to him.”
Leto claims she even found the guy’s parents on Facebook and reached out, with no response.
“It’s too bad,” she lamented. “I kind of lost a little faith in humanity there.”
TODAY’S TMJ4 reached out to J. Leto as well and did not hear back. PayPal said it would look into the matter further, even requesting more information, but at the time of this post had not responded to specific questions.
UPDATE: After this story posted on TMJ4.com, PayPal did reach out with additional communication. The company pointed out transactions which draw funds directly from a customer's bank account cannot be recovered by PayPal, and the decision to approve the claim and reimbursement is with the customer's bank. PayPal did advise our local customer as to how she might work to get her money back. Here is the statement the company issues this afternoon:
"Customer service and the positive resolution of buyer and seller issues are an important focus for PayPal. We recommend that customers carefully review who they are sending money to and, as an additional safeguard, use the Goods and Services option that provides buyer protection. Additionally, when a customer uses funds from their bank account for a PayPal transaction, and would like to file a claim for a transaction, the decision to approve the claim and reimbursement is with their bank. Once the bank informs PayPal of the claim outcome, we’ll be happy to issue a reimbursement through their bank. Our customer service team is always available to help buyers with understanding their options for sending payments and our buyer protection policies. "