Originally Posted by csdavidson
I still do no understand why charges are not posted instantaneously, or within an 30 minutes. Surely each time a transaction is processed, it needs to hit Amex for authorisation? If the transaction proceeded then it should be visibile online within a matter of minutes.
While I must admit that my Charge card does post transactions faster than my Visa (or my Amex Credit Card), I still think it's a little slow. Charges that I put through on Wednesday, Wednesday Night/Thursday Early Morning are often visible on Friday Morning.
Am I missing something fundemental about how payments are processed?
Cheers
Chris
There are two steps: first the charge is authorized, then it is settled. Some companies (like BofA, MBNA are the only two I know of) will put the authorizations on your online banking statement, under a heading like "Pending Transactions." As long as the card is authorized, either via a swipe-terminal or if the merchant calls it in (if they're using an old-fashioned card imprint reader), then the credit card company knows immediately taht there is a charge on the way, and you can call the company and they could tell you what the charges are. Some places (though basically none in the U.S.; I'm not sure how common this is elsewhere) don't authorize small charges, say under $50, so AmEx or whoever would have no knowledge of the transaction until the settlement process (see below).
Most companies prefer not to list authorizations/pending transactions on the online banking, because this can confuse customers--the authorization may not be for the exact same amount as the final transaction, particularly for something like a hotel where they may authorize for more than just the room rate, since they want to make sure there will be room on your card if they need to charge you for room service or something.
It takes a couple of days (normally) for settlement since there are a number of places where transactions are "batched" as they make their way back to AmEx or whomever for payment--for example, the merchant may only send a finalized list of transactions out once a day to its credit card processing firm, and that firm may wait a day before sending on the info to AmEx, and then AmEx generally only updates the online banking database info once a day.
If the merchant for whatever reason batches less often than once a day, as might be the case for a very low-volume merchant, or if they temporarily lose track of your transaction or something, then it could be days later before they send it in, and that much longer before you see it.
The international aspect doesn't matter, for the most part: most merchants use a swipe terminal that's connected to a phone line or something of the like, so authorizations are processed immediately (and show up immediately on advanced online banking systems, like BofA's) and then settlement is also automated but happens a bit later. If you're somewhere that's a bit behind the technology curve and they still use a card-imprint machine, then you could be looking at a slower posting.