we sold something on Ebay, We have paypal, but the person who won the bid paid by credit card via paypal.
I know we can accept a cheque which she has offered, but I cant understand why we were unable to accept the money as it was paid by credit card and not debit.
Have you verified your paypal account by doing the thing where they make two small payments in to your bank account and you have to say what they were? If you haven't this is probably the reason why. By doing this you can accept all types of paypal payment as it means you have an upgraded account with them.
Have just had a look on paypal and basically if you don't have a premier account as I described before you are limited to the amount of times you can receive credit/debit card payments on your account per year. So it would seem you have reached your limit and will need to upgrade.
It may be that the buyer has not enough funds in their paypal account so it comes out as a debit card payment instead, taking 3-5 days as it would if you were to buy from a shop. The other two answers are correct too. Log on to paypal and look to see if you are verified or unverified. Click on whatever it says and it will instruct you to upgrade if needed.
It's because you don't have the premier account. If you are selling on eBay you really do need this.
There is a fee for accepting payments, but I couldn't work without it,. It still works out cheaper than driving to my bank, paying to park the car and waiting days for the cheque to clear.