topic Re: Discover pending charges in Credit Cards

Discover pending charges

CUFINANCE — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:01:41 GMT

Just opened a Discover More account this month and have a question. Is it common for charges to post to the account before the pending charges are removed? I had a purchase post to my account last Friday, however the pending charge is still reducing in my available credit.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:04:22 GMT

I think I know what you mean. I wouldn't worry about it. The available credit column isn't always 100% correct.Sometimes a merchant makes a preauthorization charge and then finally charges the actual amount. Then, it could happen that two pending charges remain for a while, one will eventually post while the other one disappears after a couple of days. As long as you're away from your overall limit, I wouldn't worry.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:09:06 GMT

Is this charge in the hospitality industry? (Hotel, Restaurant)

Re: Discover pending charges

CUFINANCE — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:27:32 GMT

No it was actually a preauthorization from an ATM that I received cash from. Transaction posted, but pending amount still factored into my available credit.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:51:55 GMT

I think there is a missed understanding here. Any amount posted will be subtracted from your available credit. In your case, you should see a decrease on both your credit limit and your cash advance limit.

Re: Discover pending charges

CUFINANCE — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:37:41 GMT

So far my experience with Discover has not been that great. The transaction posted to my account on 6/23 while the pending charge is still being reduced from my available credit. After calling them for the 4th time they said that it can take up to 10 days for a pending transaction to fall off depending on the merchant. I've never had an experience like this with any of my other credit cards.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:32:49 GMT

I too am a new Discover member. I find the online account services very disappointing. The fact you can't view pending transactions/ authorizations is VERY inconvenient. I have also noticed payments take much longer (to post) than any other CC/bank I've ever used.

Re: Discover pending charges

smc733 — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:07:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I too am a new Discover member. I find the online account services very disappointing. The fact you can't view pending transactions/ authorizations is VERY inconvenient. I have also noticed payments take much longer (to post) than any other CC/bank I've ever used.

One of many reasons Discover sits along Citi in the sockdrawer.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:11:34 GMT

The pending charges issue is not dealt with very well by Discover. Sometimes they will remain on your account for a couple of weeks after the transaction posts. It wouldn't be quite so bad except that you can't even see what they are, so you don't know what your true balance is. This is an issue when you purchase fuel 2 or 3 times, they authorize the card for $75 each time and that doesn't match the fuel purchase price, then they leave it on for 2 weeks. You can't deduct your receipts from your credit limit and equal the available balance because of the holds they haven't released yet. It wouldn't be as bad if you could look and see what those are but you can't. Hard to catch fraudulent charges early when the numbers never match up. I've called them numerous times and had them remove the pending charges, which they will do if it is past time for them to remain, but they should do a better job of it on their own.

Re: Discover pending charges

hedgeclipper2 — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:22:08 GMT

Cash advance from a Discover. You are my hero. I would never take a cash advance from my prime (although Discover is at the bottom of my "prime" list) cards. Thats why I abuse my CU cards with things like that, they don't care!

Re: Discover pending charges

scottwagnon — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:35:19 GMT

the one thing that i can think of the gives discover network cards their edge is the ability to have cash over purchases. if i am ever in a bind, i will pull out 100 dollars a day on my GE Discover to cover my rent bill.

Re: Discover pending charges

CUFINANCE — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:38:58 GMT

Yeah pretty brave on my part, but it was just a hundred bucks and i've already made a payment for $75. Really just wanted to see if the PIN that I created is working.

Re: Discover pending charges

CUFINANCE — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:45:23 GMT

I just saw that you can do cash over on point of sale purchases at grocery stores. Wish that I had known this and I could have avoided the cash advance fee and atm fee.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:10:25 GMT

@CUFINANCE wrote:
So far my experience with Discover has not been that great. The transaction posted to my account on 6/23 while the pending charge is still being reduced from my available credit. After calling them for the 4th time they said that it can take up to 10 days for a pending transaction to fall off depending on the merchant. I've never had an experience like this with any of my other credit cards.

I recently bought airline tickets using my discover card on 6/25. The transactions posted next day, but my avail credit was not corrected until 7/2.

Re: Discover pending charges

Believe1970 — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:21:08 GMT

I Had a zero balance yesterday, I bought $20 in gas and now it shows $100 pending in charges. Not sure what's up with that.

Re: Discover pending charges

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:52:47 GMT

If you paid at the pump that's probably the amount the pump preauthorized on your card and will settle hopefully when the transaction posts. Luckily the gas station I frequent does not require me to pay at the pump and since I usually grab a soda or something inside too I just pay once at the cash register, then it authorizes the exact amount of the transaction and nothing extra like it always does at the pump.

Re: Discover pending charges

Believe1970 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:47:01 GMT

Sweet, I'll try that next time.

Re: Discover pending charges

BoSox617 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:54:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I too am a new Discover member. I find the online account services very disappointing. The fact you can't view pending transactions/ authorizations is VERY inconvenient. I have also noticed payments take much longer (to post) than any other CC/bank I've ever used.

Hi Dameon773,

Why don't you submit this feedback to Discover themselves? Once you log in to your account online, click the feedback button and let them know that you would like to see a reduced transaction posting time, and that you would also like to see pending transaction details. These would be great improvements (I've suggested these very things myself).

I currently track my Discover balance in my budget - I update it each day to show the "true" balance. IME, it's not much work - I usually buy/pay things online anyway, and it only takes a minute to update hard copy receipts.

Best of luck!

Re: Discover pending charges

chan85 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:17:56 GMT

@Believe1970 wrote:
I Had a zero balance yesterday, I bought $20 in gas and now it shows $100 pending in charges. Not sure what's up with that.

That was the main reason i stopped using my card. I only have a $500 limit and was trying to take advantage of the cash back. There was some error at the pump and had to swipe the card TWICE so I had $200 on hold for like 2 weeks, even after the amount of my actual gas amount posted. I was beyond livid. I know I can go inside and pay but it makes it much more inconvienent. My other cards only hold $1 when I get gas so I use one of those if I need to!