A pending transaction is when you start a payment or money movement that has not yet finished in your account. It can be a deposit, withdrawal, or payment in process. These transactions change what you have available until they are completed.
Here are more details:
When you create a new autopay for a bill, the biller will do an authorization against the credit to make sure it's valid. That initial validation will appear as a pending transaction until the first payment. At that point, it will have a billing amount and then will become a posted transaction.
Other pending transactions can be for online purchases that will then be charged when the package is shipped.
All credit card transactions will start as PENDING, because the merchant does an authorization against the card to get approval for the funds.
After the purchaser approves, the merchant will SETTLE the transaction with Prósperos. At that point, we pay the merchant through Mastercard/Regent Bank and the transaction becomes POSTED
Generally, the PENDING amount is the same as the POSTED amount, except for two cases:
- Restaurant: when the waiter/waitress brings you the bill, it is pending for the total before the TIP. When you write in the TIP, the merchant will do a TIP ADJUSTMENT and the POSTED transaction will include the tip.
- Gas station: when you insert your card before filling gas, the gas station authorizes an initial amount (e.g., $100 or $150) which will show as the PENDING amount. After you finish pumping gas, the transaction will be adjusted to the actual amount you paid when it becomes a POSTED transaction.
These state changes from PENDING to POSTED with the adjusted amount usually take 1 day (and at most 2 days)