Why is my card payment pending?

A card payment is completed in two parts:

• At the time of purchase, we deduct the money from your available balance and hold onto it for the merchant to collect, creating a "pending" transaction.
• A few days later, the merchant collects the money and "completes" the payment.

We need to allow some time for merchants to "complete" a card payment. If a merchant does not collect the money within their timeframe (generally 7 to 15 days), we release the money back to your account.