- When you spend using a card there are two steps to processing the payment. The first is an instruction to ‘authorise’ a payment, which is when the company you’re spending with checks that your card is valid. At this stage you will see the money taken from your account. The second step is ‘ clearing’, when an instruction is given to approve the payment and it’s sent on its way to whoever you’re spending with.
- If this second step ‘clearing’ instruction doesn’t arrive within 10 days of authorising a payment, the money that was authorised simply shows back in your account.
How payments work
