Pending and declined transactions

When you make a purchase with your card, the money is set aside temporarily from your account as a ‘pending transaction’. These transactions are usually completed within two days. 

There are three situations when it might take longer for a transaction to change from ‘pending’:

• You’ve paid for something or withdrawn money, but the payment hasn’t been taken from your account yet. For example, a monthly Netflix subscription.
• Some places request ‘reserved funds’. For example, when checking in, some hotels take your card details for an ‘authorisation transaction’ that reserves enough money to cover your bill.
• ‘Voids’ can happen when a purchase is cancelled, like  when you change your mind about something you’ve bought and the store cancels it, or if a payment is duplicated. It may take a few days for it to be removed from your account.

You can view your pending transactions in Online Banking or the Zempler Bank app.

The pending transaction will either go through, meaning the money is taken from your account, or it will be removed automatically within 7 days (apart from car hire fees – these can take up to 30 days), and the money will be returned to your account balance.

If you want  a pending transaction to go through more quickly, we can do our best to help.  Please call our Customer Service team.

There are several reasons why your card might be declined, including:

• Not entering your PIN correctly
• Not having enough money in your account to cover the payment
• Your card isn’t activated
• Your card has passed its expiry date

Please call our Customer Service team if the reason isn’t one of the above.