Banking question.
 

This has always perplexed me.

I can use my debit card to buy something online or at a brick and mortar store and it is instantly debited from my account and shows up in my online statement yet when I do a transfer of funds from Paypal or Paxum it takes 3-5 business days.

Any idea why this is?

It's called "float" and financial institutions make a lot of money on it.

So they basically hang onto your money for a few days and draw interest in it then put the transfer through?

Soon enough you'll be able to purchase things online using your bank card (if you use the right bank you can actually do that now...) I HATE credit cards. Always have.

Basically, yes

I have had Paypal take literally weeks to complete a transaction from a bank account, it was ridiculous.

They'll have some other explanation of it, though, like to cut down on chargebacks/fraudulent charges or the fact that they are an online payment method and not a bank or something like that..

BTW, every Paypal payment I've sent and received have been instant except for once from CAN.