A pending card transaction is effectively holding this balance as unavailable either until the merchant settles the transaction or the hold expires.
Pending card transactions will become “posted transactions” when the settlement communication is received from the merchant. An exact timeframe cannot be provided, although this often happens within 2-3 business days. However, please be aware that we have seen this take up to 10 business days in some cases.
The varying duration is due to how merchants finalize their card transactions in batches. This is normally done once a day, but some merchants batch their transactions less frequently, resulting in the transactions staying pending longer.
Usually, the pending card transaction will disappear when the settlement is processed, but occasionally, it will linger. This happens when the merchant creates a new transaction when they run the batch, rather than finalizing the existing original authorization. The pending charge will expire and disappear automatically, usually after a week or so.