This article explains what pending transactions are, why your transactions are pending, and what happens next to your transactions.
What does it mean when a Transaction is "Pending"?
When you make a payment to a merchant it does not clear/settle straight away. The transaction initially goes to a 'pending' status while the merchant's payment processor moves towards completing the transaction on their system.
Once the merchant's system has completed the payment on their side the transaction will then move to a 'settled' status. This can take between 5-7 working days and the merchant has up to 15-30 days altogether to do this, however most payments settle within a few days.
This is similar to how refunds can take up to 5-7 working days to appear back in a balance and a card's statement. The merchant's payment processor requires this time to complete the action.
How will I know if my transaction is pending, settled or reversed?
If a transaction is still in a pending status the 'status' and 'description' on your card's statement page will detail this.
If the payment has settled the 'status' of the transaction will change to "settled" and the description will be blank.
However, after a payment has been reversed the status will change to "reversed' and the description will also be blank.
What it means when a transaction has been pending on a Card's Statement for some time.
Merchants are allowed to keep funds in a pending status for up to 30 days from the date the payment had been made. However, if the merchant has intention to reverse the payment this is typically done within 15 days. This time-period allows the merchant the necessary time to process the payment back to the card, make any changes to the amount or action any refunds.
While a payment is within this 15-30 day period Yordex no longer has control over the funds, as they have been ring-fenced by the merchant.
However, after this timeframe has passed the merchant must reverse the payment and they cannot hold it as "pending" any longer. Once this has been done the pending transaction will have a "reversed" status in the card's statement.
If 15-30 days has passed and the pending transaction is still in a Yordex card statement please reach out to our support team and we can look into having this removed for you.
Can a pending transaction be removed or released from a card statement before the 15-30 day time period has passed?
Unfortunately this cannot be actioned while the payment is within the advised time-period. Due to the funds for the payment being ring-fenced by the merchant, early release of this may cause the cardholder to overspend and the merchant can later debit the card - causing it to go into a negative balance.
If you do not believe that a pending transaction should be appearing in a card statement we advise that you contact the merchant first, as they may be able to release the pending transaction before the time period has ended. Otherwise, you will need to wait for the 15-30 days to pass for the payment to automatically release itself.