PayPal reports technical problems in the UK

Global online payment solutions provider PayPal is facing technical problems in the UK, which have led to delays in payments to customers.

According to a company spokesman, PayPal decided to speed up the process of payments, crunching the time for transferring funds to a customer's bank account from three working days to just a few hours. In the process, there was a surge in the volume of business, leading the firm to increase the number of transactions being sent for security checks.

Payment providers like PayPal have to, as per regulations, send a given number of transactions for security checks. But with the spike in volumes of transactions, the company's system became overloaded, leading to the technical glitch.

''We have had some technical issues which mean more transactions than usual are being reviewed for risk reasons,'' the spokesman said. The underlying issues have now been resolved and the firm hopes to sort out the issues by the end of the week. ''Although most withdrawals are not subject to review, a minority of customers have been told it may take up to 24 hours for us to review the transactions.''

Founded in 1998, the San Jose, California-based company was acquired by eBay in 2002. A significant amount of transactions on PayPal are payments made or received relating to sales on the auction site.

A safe and easy way to get paid online, the service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, PayPal Smart Connect or account balances, without sharing financial information.