Debit card transations take 3-5 days to clear?

jsmoke

jsmoke

jsmoke

Soldato
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17 Jun 2012
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Was wondering was that is, all electronic, you either have money or you don't, after a quick search some people seem to think it so that bank have 3-5 more days to 'use' your money before it leaves them, this right?
 
Yes, usually takes 3 days for me.

So if you buy something and you don't have enough money to pay for it, you have 3 days to place the funds in your account....I think.
 
Name said:
Yes, usually takes 3 days for me.

So if you buy something and you don't have enough money to pay for it, you have 3 days to place the funds in your account....I think.
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No, as the transaction wouldn't go through in first place, you couldn't buy something online for ex, if you didn't have the funds, so they know you have funds, so why does it need 3-5 days, it's not like it's held in a traffic jam on the electronic highway.
 
Authorisations are done in real time. This is where the funds are checked to see if they're available, and if so, they are reserved ("ring fenced") in your account for a period of time. Debits are a different thing, and they get sent through to the bank in batches, usually once a day overnight, and the bank then takes a few days to actually move the money around.

That's how it works with an Internet merchant account at least. I don't know if it's the same for a PDQ machine.
 
Instantly taken out of your available balance, but will not show on you ledger balance until the funds have actually cleared.
 
Seems you are correct, the payment/ account is authorized right away and the amount is automatically deducted from your account within seconds.

Really dont know why it takes 3 days to complete the process, more than likely the BACS ? they are entered into the system on the first day, processed on the second day, and cleared on the third day.
 
I believe shops process debit card transactions in batch's rather than one at a time so the money is on hold until then?
 
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I think it is a conspiracy, just like Bank holidays. The electronic highways magically turn off.

IT'S ALL LIES, THE HARIBO ARE TO BLAME.
 
If anyone wants a serious reply it's because you have merchants and acquirer.

When Joe public pays for something it checks your bank to see if you have the funds which then get "shadowed or marked " to come out of your account.

When the merchant decides to "poll" the terminal usually at the end of the day the transactions get sent to processing company Integral or FIS for example. These companies all need to be PCI compliance ( which is another story all together!)

These companies pass these files to an acquirer like Elavon. The acquirer then sort the monies our the merchant ( shop owner) and the customer.

This all takes time which in turn mines the money comes out of the customers account the next working day and the merchant gets the money in 3-4~ working days.

If you want a more detailed explanation it will have to wait until tonight:o

Hope that helps explain your question :)
 
3 days is normal for a cleared balance by the time it passes through clearing. It's not just a case of a single transaction going from one bank/account to another.. A transaction will pass through many stages before it's actually cleared.

In most cases cash is accrued into an interbank nostro.. You owe us or we owe you from a banks perspective (Lloyds - Barclays for example)

The only exception to this is same bank transactions is these aren't normally passed across a nostro or payment system such as SWIFT.
 
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