Yes that’s correct, I’ve worked in the field, when you place an order online there’s a workflow triggered in the background between your bank, the vendor and visa/Mastercard in the case of credit cards. When you place the order, an authorization is placed on the card, at that stage it goes through a few checks (balance, fraud checks, creation of the transaction ID, etc). If it’s successful, it’ll move to a pending status, at this point it’s just an authorization, during this time the company will prepare your order for shipping. Once it ships, the authorisation gets converted to a settlement, which is when money actually starts getting transferred. Even then it’ll take a few more days for the banks to actually process the transaction before the vendor can refund it.
Of course, this is all just the way it’s done, I’m not saying it’s the right one. Companies use this process because it’s nice and safe, guarantees you won’t be losing money through the cracks, but nothing would stop them from just refunding before this whole transaction shenanigans is fine, they just take more risk.
You: buys a digital thing from an online store
Store: takes your money right away with no waiting time
You: Decide you don’t want it anymore, too expensive to renew
Store: okay, you’ll get your money back in 5 to 10 business days
I don’t think the store takes your money right away? They mark it paid when the transaction starts not when they receive the money.
Yes that’s correct, I’ve worked in the field, when you place an order online there’s a workflow triggered in the background between your bank, the vendor and visa/Mastercard in the case of credit cards. When you place the order, an authorization is placed on the card, at that stage it goes through a few checks (balance, fraud checks, creation of the transaction ID, etc). If it’s successful, it’ll move to a pending status, at this point it’s just an authorization, during this time the company will prepare your order for shipping. Once it ships, the authorisation gets converted to a settlement, which is when money actually starts getting transferred. Even then it’ll take a few more days for the banks to actually process the transaction before the vendor can refund it.
Of course, this is all just the way it’s done, I’m not saying it’s the right one. Companies use this process because it’s nice and safe, guarantees you won’t be losing money through the cracks, but nothing would stop them from just refunding before this whole transaction shenanigans is fine, they just take more risk.