Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleur-De-Lis
Hi Antonia, what exactly is pre-authorized transaction, and up to whom is to 'adjust' it - is it to be done by merchant, or by bank?
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I am 101% positive the charge I complained about in OP is done in error and it IS unauthorized, the funds are still 'blocked' as on today. The merchant is Aquapay, but the casino denies they charged me. Should I call/email directly to Aquapay, or it is waste of time? I am afraid that if I instruct my bank to refuse/reverse this charge I might have problems with this casino or its processor in future... at the same time, I am not thrilled at all to find out that some virtual payment processor can charge me anytime they want, with any amount they like... it is harldy a joke  |
What happens is that 9 times out of 10, any payment processor, gambling or otherwise, will not charge your credit/debit card at the time you make a purchase. What they will do is make sure the funds are there (pre-authorize,) and if they are, they will place a hold on the funds.
Once this is done, they have 'dibs' on this money, and will usually run a batch processes of all of their transactions at the end of the day, week, etc.
The reasons for this are that it's cheaper to run 100 (example) charges through at once instead of 1 at a time.
I've seen some small mom&pop stores take up to a week to debit a card. It just makes more sense for them to wait.
Ultimately, it's up to the bank to release these funds. The minimum you're looking at, due to Visa/MC regulations, is around a week.
Some processors are pretty lame when it comes to this. Last year I tried to buy some Ink for my printer using a Visa gift card. The merchant tried to run the card, and even though it didn't go through because my address wasn't registered with the gift card, the sale was declined. But yet, they pre-authorized the charges on my card before they even knew it was going to be declined..go figure. I had to wait a week before that hold was dropped.