When does CC payee actually get money?

Halloway

I am asking this purely out of curiosity after having read a thread on Argos Direct. There was a complaint on that thread that Argos Direct charge credit cards at the time the order is placed, regardless of whether the goods ordered are in stock. The complainant wondered how much interest Argos get by charging CCs, holding on to the money for a few days and then refunding it.

This led me to wonder how, when and how often CC payees actually receive the cash from CC transactions. Do CC companies settle up on a per-transaction basis or is it done on a cumulative monthly basis, a month or two in arrears? If the latter were the case then it would be of no financial benefit to Argos to charge a CC and then refund it as no cash would actually ever be transferred, unless the interval was greater than a couple of months.

TIA,
Pete