That's odd, since every merchant account (credit card processing) agreement from any bank I've ever read has the same 180 day period written into it for holds and reserve accounts. It covers any chargebacks that may come in after the account is suspended.
In the US, it *is* illegal for any bank or other regulated financial company. But PayPal claims that they aren't that.
There are lots of other ways to send or receive money and most of them don't have the reputation that PayPal has.