Is it possible to cancel an incomplete transaction

Maybe you check your credit card bill and see evidence of late-night online shopping: half a dozen outstanding payments.

Don’t worry, it’s pretty common. A pending transaction is a transaction that is not yet registered in your account. In the case of your shopping, online transactions usually appear as pending until the merchant ships your purchase and bills your card.

Whether you’re staying at a hotel, renting a car, or paying for gas with your best credit card, these merchants can also block your card, which shows up as a payment pending.

Once the transaction is posted to your account, you can dispute the payment if you have any issues with your purchase thanks to the Fair Credit Billing Act. What if you have a problem before posting a transaction and want to cancel an incomplete card transaction? This is a more difficult situation.

How do pending transactions work?

There are several situations in which a transaction can remain pending.

For online purchases, your transaction is often left pending until it is sent. As soon as it is sent, your transaction will be published. This is because in the event of shipping problems or delivery delays, you will not be charged for the item until the seller confirms that the order has been completed successfully.

In the hospitality industry, when you check in for a stay, it is common practice to withhold the amount you have to pay for the room, plus an additional charge to cover any potential damage or other unexpected expenses.

For example, a hotel would like coverage in case you dip into snacks and drinks that are not free or damage your hotel room. When you check out and pay the bill, based on the actual tab for your stay, the deduction will be removed.

If you pay with the same card that has a hold on it, the card issuer will know that the hold is no longer required and will remove it shortly. However, if you pay your bill with a different card or other means of payment, it may take some time for the issuer to recognize that you have paid the bill and release the block.

When you eat at a restaurant, there may be a pending payment on your card before the final payment replaces it, which will include any tips you add to the bill. And when you pay at a gas station, the company may block your card to make sure you have enough funds, and this delay will be lifted once your transaction is processed.

Note. The money that is associated with such pending payments is actually a deduction from your available credit limit and you need to be careful and account for it to make sure you have enough funds for other transactions.

That’s why at least one state, Maine, has seen fit to enact legislation to protect consumers in these situations. The State requires businesses that hold more than the actual amount of the transaction on your card to settle such withholdings to the actual amount of the transaction within an hour of the transaction being completed. This law has teeth, and Maine will fine merchants who break it.

What is authorization retention?

The pending authorization lock is intended to let the merchant know that you have funds available to cover any expenses you may incur. The examples we have seen so far, such as those in hotels, gas stations, or restaurants, are considered authorized.

Depending on why the authorization hold was applied, it may remain pending for several days. After the merchant unlocks the lock by canceling or processing it, it can take five to seven days before the transaction is canceled or published. If a transaction remains pending for a while and you need access to these funds, you can contact the merchant or issuer to delete it.

Now let’s look at the various scenarios in which you might want to cancel an incomplete transaction.

When the seller is wrong

If you see two pending transactions from the same seller and for the same amount, you may have been accidentally charged twice. You may also have returned a shipped item, but the payment is still among the pending transactions.

When you see a pending payment that you’re having a problem with, you may want to cancel the payment with your credit card issuer. Unfortunately, card issuers generally do not allow you to dispute pending payments. In most cases, only published transactions can be disputed, as there is always a chance that the seller will delete your pending payment. In fact, calling them directly is often better than reporting the problem to your card issuer, as they will be able to help you resolve it faster.

When you call or send an email to a seller, please have relevant details such as order number, invoice total, and transaction date ready. You can also print or take a screenshot of the payment information for documentation purposes.

Because pending payments reduce your available credit or bank balance, it’s best to work with the seller and contact them in the hope that they’ll delete the pending transaction before it’s posted. So you can release your available credit.

When you have buyer remorse or made a mistake

Returning to our previous online shopping example, you may wake up the next day and find yourself regretting some or all of the purchases you made last night. Or maybe you were still shopping and accidentally hit “Place Order” before you even decided you wanted the item.

If you really don’t want to buy anymore, try canceling it with the seller immediately. It is best to contact the seller as soon as possible, before the goods are shipped, so that he does not have to fulfill the goods. If the item has already shipped, you may have to wait for it to arrive at your home before requesting a refund, which is a completely different process.

In such cases, you should be able to cancel your subscription directly with the seller without any problems.

When you are unhappy with a product

Consider another possible situation: you bought the chair of your dreams, upholstered in turquoise fabric, exactly the size you were looking for. However, when it arrives, it is completely out of description – its color is navy blue and it’s too big to fit in your reading nook.

When you contact the seller for a refund, the seller is unsympathetic and says the item is non-refundable. What are you doing now?

As in other scenarios, the issuer can do nothing with this purchase until it is completed. However, after posting, you can try to apply for a transaction under your credit card’s refund protection. This benefit will refund you if the seller refuses to give you a refund, exchange, or store credit. However, not all cards offer return protection, and this is different from purchase protection, which applies to an item if it is lost or stolen within a certain number of days from the date of purchase.

Cardholders who are not eligible for chargeback protection may instead call their issuer and request a chargeback. Basically, they work like a refund initiated by your issuer, in which your issuer will fight the seller for your purchase. If your issuer is successful, you will receive a refund.

You must have a good reason for chargebacks to work. In this case, the product description on the site is misleading. Also, be sure to keep a record of your correspondence with the seller regarding your refund request to show the issuer as evidence of your claim.

When you don’t plead guilty

If you do not recognize the charge, you should deal with it before proceeding to cancel it. It could be your legitimate purchase that you don’t remember, or it could mean that someone has stolen your card details and is trying to use it.

When you see suspicious activity regarding a purchase, such as a large out-of-state transaction that you know you didn’t make, or a purchase made from a store you don’t shop from, you should make every effort to dispute it and get it cleaned right away.

If you suspect a pending transaction is fraudulent, contact your bank and file a fraud report online or by phone. Often, a customer representative will report your card as lost or stolen so that the scammer cannot continue to charge your account.

Those who suspect that their card may be stolen again can set up fraud alerts at one of the three national credit bureaus. Having contacted one, he must notify the others. The alert will force issuers and lenders to request additional identification when granting a loan in your name.

bottom line

Incomplete payments can tie up your funds, making it difficult to use them for other transactions. As a rule, it is impossible to cancel them while they are under consideration. Consumers should contact the seller to try to resolve any issues, and the seller will usually contact the issuer to cancel the payment.