You’re right - it may be that something else is happening in practice - perhaps there is a trust algorithm built into the PayPal system - i.e. maybe if you have a high volume of transactions and your bank has always been good for the money, they let it straight through - it could be a low volume buyer thing.
But the official line from Paypal is “A payment will be sent as an eCheque if you don’t have a card and a bank linked to your account at that time, and if your PayPal balance is not enough to cover the payment.”
(I guess this could also be ambiguous or poorly phrased - in the sense that it might mean: ‘If your payment went as an echeque, here’s why’, rather than ‘an eCheque will always happen under these conditions’)
Money in PP account or not my (US based) payments go through immediately. (I’ve sold stuff to UK buyers and their payments come through immediately. I can’t imagine all UK buyers and sellers having to deal with those delays. I (assumed) I only got echecks when the buyer did not have CC backup or an established, verified bank account. If you are a long term PP user with a verified account and CC backup and all your payments are issued as echecks I’d give paypal a call to see what’s up.
No that’s not what the information in the link is saying.
When paying with your Paypal balance or credit/debit card, the payment is instant.
When paying with your checking account, the payment is echeck.
If you want your payments from your checking account to be instant you must also link a credit/debit card to your account. The money still comes out of your checking account, but if for some reason there is a problem, they will secure the funds from your alternate source. In this way they can offer instant transfer from your checking account.
I’ve got a verified bank account, but the card details I registered with PayPal had expired. I might update them, but I rarely buy on eBay now - and it’s usually not a very big deal for me to wait for the payment to clear.