How Long Does E-Commerce Credit Card Processing Take Before You Get Your Funds?

It’s never been easier for you to handle e-commerce credit card processing efforts than now. You can program an online shopping cart and payment platform that can securely collect customer data in moments.

The timing for when you’ll receive your funds is another story. The e-commerce credit card processing effort can be efficient, but it can take a while for you to get your money at times. You can expect to spend a couple of business days before getting the funds in your merchant account through your acquiring bank.

The General Start

When you accept a credit card, you are authorizing the user’s purchase. You will immediately authorize the user if that person has enough money in one’s credit line to pay for something.

The acquiring bank is the specific group that will authorize the payment. The acquiring bank is the bank that processes credit card payments on your behalf. The bank lets you accept card payments as necessary.

Authorization Request

While you’ll complete the authorization in moments, it could take a bit to get confirmation from the bank that issued the customer’s card. Your acquiring bank will send a request to the customer’s bank to confirm the process.

It takes a few seconds for the card-issuing bank to authorize the transaction in most cases. But it could also take a few minutes to complete if there are issues. These concerns include online connection problems, credit limit issues, and other points surrounding the sale.

Moving An Authorization Code

Your business will receive an authorization code after the card-issuing bank authorizes the payment. The code and a draft of sales will go to the authorizing bank and then to the card-issuing bank.

But the effort will not entail processing these transactions one at a time. Your business will instead send the authorization codes you receive once a day or week. The more detailed batch will include many transactions, saving you time trying to move each transaction in the process.

You could attempt to process individual transactions if you wish. But that is recommended for when you have a more massive payment worth thousands of dollars in hand. The smaller and more routine totals you collect can wait a few business days.

Finalizing the Deal

It could take about one to three business days for you to get your funds through the authorization code. The card-issuing bank will collect the authorization code and then remove an interchange fee from the total you are owed. The fee is a charge for processing your card transactions. The money then returns to the acquiring bank, which will then move those funds to your merchant account.

The whole funding process takes 1-3 business days due to the mass of requests a network can receive. While you will confirm the customer’s order in less time, it will take a bit for you to get the money you are owed. But the e-commerce credit card processing effort will ensure you’ll get the support you need every time you request help.

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