What is a pending card transaction?

When a merchant charges your card, we'll authorise the payment which will allow them to confirm that your card is valid and you've got enough money to pay for the goods or service being provided. The payment will be deducted from your Everyday Funds and will appear in your transaction history as 'pending' until it's processed.

Pending transactions typically take between 5 and 7 business days to process but some pending transactions, typically those related to estimated and incremental authorisations, can take 16 days or longer.

Initial or estimated authorisations

Some pending transactions are initial or estimated authorisation charges, which are placed by some merchants, like hotels or car rental providers, when the final amount is not yet known or may change.

Incremental authorisations

The value of the initial or estimated authorisation may be updated by incremental authorisations, to reflect additional charges you accrue.

For example, when you check into a hotel, an initial or estimated authorisation charge of $100 is placed on your card. If you order $50 room service, the merchant may process this as an incremental authorisation and the initial charge is updated to $150. The authorisation amount will continue to update to reflect any additional spend during your stay. The final payment will be processed as a single transaction when you settle your bill.

Disputing a transaction

You can’t dispute a transaction while it’s pending, so if you are worried about a pending transaction, keep an eye on it and wait to see if the transaction is processed.

If it is, please follow the steps to raise a dispute right away. For joint account transactions, remember to also check with your plus one before lodging a dispute.

If you have any questions about pending card transactions, please send us a message.