Authorisation Hold Advice

WillJL

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone could advise, I am getting a bit fed up with some hugely long authorisation holds on my cards and wondered how legal these extended periods are. I have had one charge on there for 9 weeks and the nuisance thing is that it then runs down my available credit card limit for three months, I would much rather they just take the money!

Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

Which card? Who put a hold for 9 weeks?

All cards work this way even debit cards.

Do you have a 'spare' credit card that you can use for those transactions that might do this?

WillJL

It's just a supermarket credit card that offers cashback (which is why I try to ensure I use it as much as possible). And the people placing the charges are generally furniture retailers who want authorisation immediately but will not take the charge until goods are shipped, as mentioned one of these took 9 weeks due to high demand.

I appreciate this is the way a lot of these retailers act but I find it incredibly frustrating and would rather pay some deposit or in all honesty the whole some of it meant freeing up the card for other payments.

I probably started this as a bit of rant but to me it seems grossly unfair. I suppose the answer is to be more savvy in future and perhaps more sceptical when they provide timelines.

Thank you for your help.

[Deleted User]

You need to balance your view though against that of those who would say 'why should I need to pay for something I'm not even going to get for 9 weeks' - which to be fair, is probably the majority view.

Enterprise_1701C

I personally would prefer this to paying for something weeks before it arrives. They are simply guaranteeing the money will be there when they need to take it and you do not have to pay until that time.

Nebulous2

I'd say get another card, its always good to have a back-up, or ask for a limit increase. I don't buy a great deal of furniture, with the main holds on my card being fuel from pay-at-the-pump or from car hire companies. They tend to only last a few days. I have credit limits that mean it has never been an issue.

WillJL

I appreciate time value of money arguments etc. for delaying payments so on and so forth and I am more than aware that not everybody will use a card without having the money immediately available and may appreciate wait times also.

I do however believe a deposit would be a sufficient form of collateral for a retailer instead but then again I appreciate debt write-off can be extremely costly to businesses however they do still maintain ownership and control of the good and can flog it to someone else if all falls through.

I think it may be time to investigate getting a new card that offers equal reward so that I do not lose out by making such purchases in future.

Ultimately, I suppose my query here may have been to ascertain whether there existed limits to such holds as to me it does seem unreasonable to hold for such a long period of time but it seems like I may be in the minority there.

Thank you all for your replies.

molerat

Authorisation holds normally only last for 4 - 10 days. Why is yours staying longer - is the retailer re-submitting the request after the original expires ?

WillJL

Hi Molerat,

I am unsure on the mechanisms at play, we provided the card on the date we 'purchased' the good a hold is then registered until the product is ready to be shipped. In that particular instance it was 9 weeks before the charge actually appeared on the card but for that entire time the charge was there to reduce my available credit limit. For someone who uses their credit card like a charge card this was very frustrating.

Thank you for your reply.