Being our practice since the shop opened and never changed, no doubt some IT reason behind it. Though as we do a lot of pre-orders it also ensures smooth running, guarantees when stock lands your order ships without issue as many customers forget about pre-orders so if charging a month later their card may have expired, being cancelled or lack funds, at which point they lose their queue position, so charging up front, prevents any such issues. Though I believe the real reason is simply down to technical reasons of how the software/webshop works.
However I also think different payment options we offer work differently, for example if you use Amazon checkout I don't think any money is taken, though I am not 100% sure. Its just how OcUK has been since the beginning and to my knowledge its not changing any time soon.
