Hello!

I could not find anywhere here or in Terms&Conditions: how long does BUNQ keeps pre-authorizations on my MasterCard.

Answer “depends” does not seem valid. What if merchant does pre-authorization and then NEVER makes final settlement and NEVER cancels pre-authorization on his side. Does it mean my money will remain forever blocked?

There should definitely be a rule on BUNQ side - for how long keep the unclaimed pre-authorizations alive: be it two weeks, 30 days .. whatever.

    @Aleksandr-Blue-Badger#64291 As far as I know it is nowhere stated in the bunq T&C. In the T&C of Mastercard the maximum is 30 days. See 2.5.1 here: https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/mccom/global/documents/transaction-processing-rules.pdf

    But from the amount of topics about this on Together I get the feeling that somewhere between bunq and Mastercard this doesn't work right. There are too many people asking about authorisations that don't get released back on their bank account. Unfortunately most people never return to their topic to tell more after they have been redirected to bunq support.

      @JeroenE#64303 @Jeroen, thanks for the link. I will carry the test-case at my own expence😂 Because i have exactly pre-authorization done on my MasterCard on 16. January. So i will wait for 16. February and will write back here, what will happen.

        Hi @Aleksandr-Blue-Badger#64291

        That's indeed a good question . As a common rule we automatically reverse these kinds of transactions after 7 days.

        There are exceptions though☝️ like Tolls, restaurants, Travel agencies and others in which we automatically reverse the transaction after 30 days

        There are also various cases in which a merchant might create an authorisation, but never send a clearing to finalise the payment, or a reversal to cancel the payment. So in these cases we always advice you guys to come on the chat of your app and we can speed up this process for you and reverse the payment👍

          @Raul-Cyan-Lion-3476404034#64317 I can understand about hotels, car rental, travel agencies and so on.

          But why should a restaurant or a toll road be able put a hold on money for 30 days?

            I have pre-authorizations from Louis Vuitton from 04.08.2018 (1€ each). I contacted bunq about those and customer support told me I need to send them a confirmation from LV that those are not actual payments, but pre-authorizations. (Has anyone ever seen anything for 1€ at Louis Vuitton? 😜) However, I was too lazy so far to send them (LV) an email to clarify this (for 2€).

            Bottomline: I cannot confirm that bunq always releases pre-authorizations automatically (after e.g. 30 days). I have 2-3 cases where I asked the vendor for such a confirmation, because the pre-authorization was much higher and I wanted the money back.

              @Phil#64343 Also: why can't bunq see if the transaction is a pre-authorisation or a final settlement? It makes no sense that you have to proof this as that should be clear from bunqs own system.

                @JeroenE#64347 I contacted the vendor to have them confirm the transaction (shown in the bunq app) is a pre-authorization and not a payment. Then I sent this confirmation to the customer support and they manually released the pre-authorization. However, this includes some time and work.

                  @JeroenE#64325 I would ask myself the same 😄. This is basically an internal list we use at bunq based on these merchant types that took more than 7 days to reverse/send clearing for transactions.

                    @JeroenE#64349 Good question. I don’t know and have been asking myself the same question. Customer support even told me that those two Luis Vuitton pre-authorizations are payments (and not pre-authorizations).

                      Update as promised:
                      - Pre-authorisation was done on 16.January
                      - Belongs really to “Others” category. It was some governmental online service fee.
                      - Transaction looked special in “Events”. It had pale color.
                      - Today 14. February it got autocancelled. 30 days rule worked.

                        5 days later

                        Interesting subject. I never though of looking into these and found some none cancelled €1.00 transactions from Amazon way back in August 2018 (with Bunq since late 2017).

                          A pre-authentication is never an payment. It is merely an acknowledgement to the merchant that the account have sufficient funds and it was successful to claim a reservation for amount xxx.

                          It is the job of the merchant to capture (settle) the exact amounts. Each authorization also carries an expire date, when the authorization expires, the uncaptured amount is given back to the account holder. Most creditcard companies provide means to extend an authorization.

                          For creditcard payment integrators it is a good rule of thumb to assume the authorization is only valid for 7 days. Most merchants capture these amounts when the ordered items are invoiced or shipped. Most merchants use a payment provider like Adyen, Bibit, Ogone or WorldPay to name a few. Not all providers provide an option to extend the creditcard authorization..

                          Normal bank account cards also have an authorization option. This feature is mostly used bu unattended gas stations when you enter you pincode before you gas up your car. Most gas station place an reservation of 100 euro on your account and when your finished, the actual amount is captured and the rest is 'returned' to the account. Some hotels also use this feature, mostly to make sure you can pay the bill when you leave. Most resorts give you an discount when they are allowed to reserve an amount on your card..

                            @Davy-Yellow-Bear#65767 But in case of bunq the pre-authorisation is actually displayed as a payment in the app. So that's probably where the confusion kicks in.

                              That is possible. Normally reservations (authorizations) are not displayed to the account holder until they are captured (settled).
                              However Bunq provides debit cards that work a little bit different..

                                5 years later

                                I have a pre authorisation made by a hotel on the 26th of April and today the 27th of May it is still pending. I should not have to contact the merchant to release the money. I have had many cards from other banks and I never had to do that. This is a reason for me to not use the card any more as it is a hustle to be asking for refunds...

                                  @Aleksandr-Blue-Badger#64291 Bună de ce nu puteați să-mi faci cardul vă rog frumos

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