topic Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time? in Credit Cards

Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:15:30 GMT

I monitor my credit card online. Recently my husband and I spent two nights of vacation at a hotel, the total charge being $508.00. This charge showed up as pending and ALSO posted to our account. The result was that our statement showed available credit as zero - since we have only $750 in credit and the two charges of $508.00 totaled $1016.00. How can a charge be pending and posted at the same time, thus doubling the charge? When I explained this, I was told that the pending charge had to be removed by the merchant, so I called the merchant. They were most helpful and said they had been paid and were not holding anything - they even sent the credit card company a fax to that effect - yet the credit card people still have the charge listed as both pending and posted. I even went online and paid the full $508.00, but this has not altered anything. Is this legal? Can I do anything? We're very careful about our credit and don't want it to appear as though we went over our credit line when we didn't.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

SSA_2013 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:18:59 GMT

If the hotel faxed a document to the bank you must fight it with the credit card company now. It seems as if they are placing a hold on their end. If you do nothing it will probably take about a week for it to sort itself out but I wouldn't settle for that. I would ask for a supervisor.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

ezdoesit — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:25:49 GMT

@SSA_2013 wrote:
If the hotel faxed a document to the bank you must fight it with the credit card company now. It seems as if they are placing a hold on their end. If you do nothing it will probably take about a week for it to sort itself out but I wouldn't settle for that. I would ask for a supervisor.

One of the big questions is since you have both pending and posted does the cc company see it as you going over your limit? And are they going to hold that against you in the future. If they are not going to hold it against you I wouldn't worry about it to mush becuase your zero available credit would just be a temporary inconvenience. Actually in the long run this could work out in you favor they might either give you a auto cli because they might see that you need more credit of course providing you have a good payment history.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:26:19 GMT

Welcome to the Forum

Its odd you would see the hold and the charge for the same exact amount, I guess it is possible, and hopefully the hold part will fall off soon, I feel bad for people who have very limited credit and something like this happens because it could litterly ruin a vacation if you were cointing on using the available credit

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:28:33 GMT

Thanks for replying. My problem so far is that the credit card company is claiming the fault lies with the hotel, but the hotel was very cooperative and has said they are willing to do any additional thing (besides having already faxed the credit card company) to help me. The credit card people, on the other hand, just claim repeatedly that the hotel is holding the money. I can't imagine how it can be legal to hold and post the same amount, effectively doubling the amount I appear to owe. If this was standard practice, every expenditure for which you use your card would have the potential to lower your available credit by twice the amount spent - by appearing as a billed amount and a pending amount at the same time.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

ezdoesit — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:29:22 GMT

I feel bad for people who have very limited credit and something like this happens because it could litterly ruin a vacation if you were cointing on using the available credit.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:31:34 GMT

Yes, that's part of my concern. My available credit now shows as zero, even though I didn't spend up to my limit (or even close to it) and I have already authorized my bank to pay the full amount of $508.00 (but NOT the imaginary additional $508 that is pending). I wasn't planning on using that credit because we're always very careful not to get near using the full amount - but I don't want it to appear as if we haven't been as careful as we really are, and I don't want our hard-won credit to be affected.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

kroberts67 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:31:37 GMT

This happens all the time. Many cards will automatically release the hols once the charge has posted, but some do not. The holds may be for a longer period of time than the date the merchant actually runs their batch, finally taking the payment. It is the bank hold at that point, not the merchant hold. The bank can see that it has already posted and release it for you. This is their choice. My CU will release if I ask, as long as they see it has already posted.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:35:28 GMT

Thanks, I'm less concerned about the hold falling off soon than about any possible adverse affect on our credit. We never use anything close to the full amount available, and we pay off the entire amount every month. I'm concerned about the appearance. I've printed out the online conversations I've had with the credit card company, as well as the online statements that show the same amount both in pending and in posted transactions. I'm not even sure if this documentation will do me any good, since assistance from the hotel office manager hasn't worked.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

ezdoesit — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:35:32 GMT

@kroberts67 wrote:
This happens all the time. Many cards will automatically release the hols once the charge has posted, but some do not. The holds may be for a longer period of time than the date the merchant actually runs their batch, finally taking the payment. It is the bank hold at that point, not the merchant hold. The bank can see that it has already posted and release it for you. This is their choice. My CU will release if I ask, as long as they see it has already posted.

USAA does it to me if I get gas or pay for peapod delivery. 50 of gas and they sometimes charge me with 50 dollars posted for gas and 100 dollars for pending. Meanwhile citibank never does that to me only the exact amount of charge.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:37:52 GMT

If it's not snoopy to ask (and I apologize if it is), when this happens to you does your credit card company also debit your available credit by twice the amount of the actual expenditure? This seems to me to be really over the top and I just can't imagine it's legal.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

kroberts67 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:38:30 GMT

This kind of thing is why I stopped using my USAA card for gas, they will place a $100 hold on my little car will only takes maybe $50 completely empty, and their hold doesn't drop off when the charge posts so it takes up my avail credit for awhile and that erks me so I don't use it. So much on 2X gas rewards!

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:39:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks, I'm less concerned about the hold falling off soon than about any possible adverse affect on our credit. We never use anything close to the full amount available, and we pay off the entire amount every month. I'm concerned about the appearance. I've printed out the online conversations I've had with the credit card company, as well as the online statements that show the same amount both in pending and in posted transactions. I'm not even sure if this documentation will do me any good, since assistance from the hotel office manager hasn't worked.

I doubt will have any adverse effect at all

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:42:18 GMT

I guess this is in the fine print somewhere. I can understand holding an amount over the actual cost of something like a hotel room, where they're considering the possibility that you might incur more costs than just the room and want the potential to cover them. What I don't understand is that it would seem once the amount is posted, and the hotel has been paid, and I have paid the posted amount from my bank account, I'm still shown as owing $508, having another $508 pending, for a total owed of $1,016 - and my available credit as zero. I don't need to use the credit, as we don't use the card very often, but I would like the statement to show the actual status of my account rather than something the credit card company has pulled out of a hat.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

kroberts67 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 15:47:45 GMT

You can check with your c/c company but I'm 99% sure that anything pending will not reflect on your statement-- only posted charges will. If it takes you over the limit when your statement cuts you wouldn't be able to charge anything but your statement balabce would only reflect your true balance of posted charges.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

frugalQ — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 16:07:52 GMT

Just today, I noticed the same thing with my Amex card.

The charges for the hotel where we stayed for vacation last week has posted to my account, but there's $300 still 'pending'. I figure it takes a few days for the hold to be released after the charges are settled between the merchant and the cc bank.

Since it is not impacting my ability to use my cards, I said that I would just keep an eye out to make sure it doesn't actually post. But, i think the issuing bank should be able to clear the pending charges...especially if they see the payment has already posted.

Good Luck

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 16:51:50 GMT

Thanks for your many helpful and thoughtful replies. As a matter of interest, I was told by the office manager at the hotel in question that, within recent months, they've seen a lot of this kind of thing - where the credit card company doesn't release the hold for an unconscionable amount of time and claims it's being done by the merchant. It forces the merchant to try to act as an advocate for the card holder (victim I think would be the correct word) when the problem is actually not being caused by them. Is anyone else kind of sick of these shenanigans?

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

ezdoesit — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:45:21 GMT

@kroberts67 wrote:
You can check with your c/c company but I'm 99% sure that anything pending will not reflect on your statement-- only posted charges will. If it takes you over the limit when your statement cuts you wouldn't be able to charge anything but your statement balabce would only reflect your true balance of posted charges.

+1 Definitely will not show as usage because the only thing that shows is current balance when statement cuts. Pending doesn't count toward balance, only on available credit. I don't think it is illegal because they are extending credit just like if a card company chose to reduce your credit limit. I don't worry about it with my USAA card because fortunately now my two cards with them and limits are 5 figures. Not too long ago this would have been a big problem for me. So hang in there, as your credit profile gets older and better this won't be an issue anymore. You will have either other cards with better limits or this current card with a higher limit and if not you could close it.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

nyancat — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:06:25 GMT

This is all very normal and one of many reasons not to use debit cards at hotels/gas stations. No, you won't be counted as over your limit, but transactions will likely be declined at this point.

Re: Can a charge be posted and pending at the same time?

EaglesFan2006 — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:21:26 GMT

I've had the posted and pending charge happen several times, most with Cap One. Even though it hasn't severely impacted me, I'm still concerned about it and always call. Typically they restore the credit for the pending charge. They always say it depends on the vendor and their timing, but I don't all of that 100 percent. If that were true, that would happen with a different card that you use at the same vendor, but it never does.