Interesting, twofussy. You would think that they might try loading a credit card to PayPal for a one-time payment instead, had their eCheque initially failed. I don't think it is my place to recommend this though if the buyer comes back to me asking what to do.

I always thought buyers paid by echeque by choice. That was until I sent a message to one buyer advising that their echeque would take 3-5 days to clear and when it does, I'll post. They replied with "what's an echeque?".

I've only had a handful of buyers pay that way. Only hassle I've had was one that took nearly 2 weeks to clear. That was a painful wait, for both me and the buyer.

Can the buyer see from their end that they have paid with an echeque, or does it show as being paid in their purchase history? The handful that I've had I've always sent a message, but I wasn't sure how it looked from their end.

Sheepie, paypal now defaults to the buyer's bank account (e-cheque) unless they deliberately change the funding source.  There have been several questions on the boards about it...OPs maintaining that ithas just started happening, but I have been noticing it for probably 18 months.  It does not matter what you have marked as your primary funding source, it defaults to your bank account.

I have had a fair number of echeques over the years but only had one that 'bounced' and the buyer paid again with an instant payment within hours of me sending an email asking them to remake the payment.