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Understanding pending transactions.

Here’s a guide to help you understand more about pending transactions and why they occur.

What is a pending transaction?

If you have a transaction listed as pending in Westpac One® digital banking, this means that the retailer (or merchant) has requested to withdraw funds from your Westpac card, or they’re checking your details to make sure your card is valid and that you have enough funds for the transaction in your account.

There are a couple of different types of pending transactions:

  • Authorisation: When you buy something, the merchant sends an authorisation request to Westpac. If this gets approved, it creates a pending transaction.
  • Pre-authorisation holds: Hotels, petrol stations or booking agencies may apply a ‘pre-authorisation’ or a ‘hold’ on your account for a deposit or security bond. They’re reserving an amount of money in your account to pay for the goods or service and will then charge you the final amount later at which point the reserved amount is released.
  • Verifying details: A small hold may be placed on your account while the retailer verifies your card details, such as when you’re doing an online grocery order. They’ll then process the full transaction amount. It may take a few days for the hold amount to disappear from your transactions list.

An example of an authorised pending transaction:

  • You buy a coffee at a cafe using your debit card.
  • The cafe sends an authorisation request to your bank, which gets approved, and creates a pending transaction on your account.
  • Once the cafe processes the final charge (which unlike a pre-authorisation hold cannot be higher than the pending transaction amount) the pending transaction becomes a completed transaction, and the money is deducted from your account.

In the Westpac One app, a pending transaction may look like the below:

Westpac One Digital Banking Pending transaction screen.png

How do pending transactions affect my credit or debit card balance?

The amount will be deducted from your account balance while the transaction is pending. When the transaction gets processed, this means that the merchant has banked the amount, and it will no longer show as pending in Westpac One.

How long can a transaction be pending for?

It depends on the merchant but usually, electronic transactions are processed within 3-10 days and a manual transaction can take up to 30 days.

Once a transaction appears as pending on your account, please note that you’re unable to stop or cancel the transaction until it has been processed.

What should I do if I don’t recognise a transaction?

If there’s a pending transaction on your account that you don’t recognise, call 0800 888 111, 24 hours, 7 days a week, or from overseas call +64 9 912 8000 (international toll charges apply). You can also dispute the transaction once the transaction has been processed to your account, by following our dispute process.

Please note that after 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends, Card Services are only available for reduced services which includes card fraud transaction verification.

Things you should know.

Conditions of Use for the applicable card apply. Rates, transaction and services fees apply.

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This page is provided for information purposes only.