While Keith's post is, generally a fine example of why you should not believe everything you read on the interweb, I suspect his 3 days is reference to when PayPal collects money from your current account via direct debit, which is still a 3 day cycle (albeit without any loss of interest). Why anyone would allow PayPal to do this however, is beyond me - it's slow, its opening avenues for fraud, and I think PayPal charge you for the privilege? If you make a payment to your PayPal account, from your current account (initiating the transfer from your current account) it is indeed done through the Faster Payments system, as required by regulation 70 of Payment Service Regulations. PayPal don't have any say in that.