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@suzpoodles wrote:

As you only mention banks and debit cards, I don’t know if it makes any difference that I only have a credit card linked to PayPal.  

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Pre-authorisation holds for small amounts are a security measure where debit card payments are involved for the reasons mentioned but as per the first PayPal link I posted PayPal do mention they do this for credit and debit card transactions.

Incidentally, when you use a credit card to purchase something worth £100 or more you have powerful legal protection known as Section 75. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act means that the card issuer shares equal responsibility and liability with the merchant involved if anything goes wrong with a purchase but you lose that protection by having PayPal involved (that is, unless the purchase was made with PayPal Credit). Where eBay is concerned I'm not sure you can use Section 75 as eBay are acting as an intermediary which likely breaks the direct debtor-creditor-supplier link in the same way that having PayPal involved does. However, you would still have standard chargeback protection if PayPal wasn't involved in an eBay purchase which would give you 120 days to file an "item not as described" chargeback claim instead of PayPal's 30 days following delivery.