My payment hasn’t arrived or was returned

Contents:
1. When will my cash out arrive in my PayPal account?
2. Why hasn’t my cashout arrived?
• Check and/or configure your currency settings in PayPal
• Check for unclaimed funds in PayPal
• Check for any account issues or limitations with PayPal
3. Why has my payment returned?

When will my cash out arrive in my PayPal account?

Standard processing: Cashouts typically arrive within 24 hours, often much faster.

Delays expected: Weekends, bank holidays, and high-value payments requiring additional security checks.

Why hasn’t my cash out arrived?

If your cash out hasn't arrived, this usually means there's an issue with your PayPal settings or account limitations. Below you'll find a troubleshooting checklist to help you receive Prolific payments successfully.

If it’s been more than 30 days since you cashed out and you still haven’t received your money, please send us a message using the button at the bottom of the page.

1. Check and/or configure your currency settings in PayPal

First, make sure that your PayPal account can accept both USD and GBP payments.

How to check and fix:

Log into your PayPal account
Go to Settings > Payment preferences > Manage currencies
Ensure both USD and GBP are enabled and accepted
For detailed setup instructions, see our guide: How to set up PayPal for USD and GBP payments or PayPal's official guide: Managing multiple currencies

2. Check for unclaimed funds in PayPal

If your currency settings are correct, then it's possible that your money has been sent to you, and you just need to accept it in PayPal. This happens if you have manual claiming enabled or if your account isn't set up for multiple currencies. To claim your payment:

Go to Summary > Pending in PayPal
Follow the claiming process

⚠️ Important: You have 30 days to claim your payment. After that, it will return to your Prolific account, and you'll need to cash out again. We'll email you when this happens.

✋ You cannot make another cash out until you either claim the pending payment or it returns to your Prolific account. For help with claiming payments, contact PayPal support.

For PayPal Premier/Business accounts, you can learn about payment receiving preferences in PayPal's help article (not applicable for standard accounts).

3. Check for any account issues or limitations with PayPal

If you've checked both your currency settings and pending claims in PayPal and everything appears correct, there may be limitations or issues with your PayPal account that need resolving.

In this case, you'll need to contact PayPal's support team to identify and resolve any account restrictions. Once these issues are resolved, you can try cashing out again.

Why has my payment been returned?

If your payment has returned to your Prolific wallet, it could be one of the three issues mentioned in the troubleshooting checklist above.

Check and/or configure your currency settings in PayPal
Check for unclaimed funds in PayPal
Check for any account issues or limitations with PayPal

If you can no longer cash out after a returned payment, don’t worry - for your safety, our payment processor Hyperwallet, automatically disables cashouts when a payment is returned to us by PayPal. This happens independently of the reason given by PayPal.

This is a temporary measure to ensure that the issues that caused the return on your cashout are resolved before you try to cash out again.

Need further help?
Click here to contact us