Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you use your debit card, the amount of money in your account is different from what you actually spent? This might be because of a debit card authorisation hold.

A debit card authorisation hold is when a business temporarily charges a certain amount of money from your account until they confirm the final transaction amount. This is done to make sure you have enough funds to pay for your purchase or service.

Some businesses that might place a hold on your debit card are:

• – Hotels: They will take an authorisation hold for any extra fees or for possible damages or incidentals, like the mini-bar.
• – Car rental companies: They might place a hold for the estimated cost of your rental plus some extra fees for possible damages or tolls.
• – Restaurants: They might place a hold to take your booking. This is in case you cancel or are a no-show.

These authorisation holds can last from a few hours to a few days, depending on the business and your bank and who the business banks with too. They can affect your available balance and cause overdraft fees or declined transactions if you are not aware of them.

How Authorisation Holds Work

Just like we may reserve tickets for flights or events, some merchants will reserve money from a purchase until the bank or debit card provider has transferred that amount. It is a way for them to make sure they get the purchase amount without worrying about how much money is on someone’s card.

Usually the authorisation hold will only be for the amount of money spent, so if you have bought tickets to a concert for $100 then only $100 will be held.

However, this does depend on when the hold is put in place, and in some cases the hold may be for more than is needed, which means you have access to less money than what is in your account.

In other situations, such as when booking airfares of accommodation, the authorisation hold that the airline or hotel places on your debit card may not clear at all.

Because the authorisation process goes between merchant and debit card provider, sometimes one will forget to take the hold off the account even after funds have been transferred, again limiting your access to debit card funds.

This can happen at any time, but often it is more common when using a card overseas because it takes longer for the merchant to check the authorisation and funds.

Dealing With Authorisation Holds

Regardless of whether your debit card is from a bank, Visa or MasterCard, an authorisation hold may still be put in place.

In cases where the money has been taken and a hold is still in place, the simplest solution is usually to call the debit card provider or merchant and ask them to remove the authorisation hold.

It is also a good idea to keep any purchase numbers or receipts handy to provide them with as much detail as possible so that the hold can be removed without any more hassles.

If you are not in a habit of checking your debit card account, it may be worthwhile glancing at it after bigger purchases to make sure everything has been processed smoothly.

Understanding how this feature of credit and debit cards works can save you time later, and also reduce the chances of any problems if there is an authorisation hold in place.