BOA is aggrevating...

[Phitor]

So, finally helping to keep track of DW's expenses. I haven't banked with BOA in over 10 years, but help me understand something. Why are so many BOA debit/checkcard purchases pending? For several days sometimes. Someone tried to explain to me that it depends on when the mechant <blah blah>. No, that just doesn't fly.

The idea is that using a checkcard/debit card is just like using cash. Meaning, as soon as you swipe the card, the money should be gone from the account and posted. At that point, the deal is between BOA and the merchant. The consumer should have nothing to do with it anymore.

Any ideas here? Is my understanding wrong?

[CreditMuppet]

Well I`d argue that using a debit card is not the same as using cash.  When you swipe a debit card a preauthorization  (PREAUTH) is done against your account for the amount you spent, the preauth is just a check to ensure that your financial instutution will accept the debited amount, in the case of BOA you will see a pending charge for this in online banking HOWEVER the sale is not final until the merchant sends a follow up CAPTURE which processes the actual transaction and the money changes hands.  Some merchants only run their sales every few days, some can be a week or more which is why some transactions clear faster than others (these are usually done in batches). 

 Eventually if a capture is not sent within a specific period the preauth will dissapear (time determined by your financial institution), and then can reappear when the final capture is done. 

[kelli1970]

I think there is also a difference in how they handle the transaction electronically if the card is run as debit (have to enter the PIN) as opposed to credit (have to sign somehow).