Authorization Hold

An authorization hold reserves money on a customer's card without collecting it. The issuer sets the amount aside and lowers the card's available credit. No money moves until the merchant captures the payment or the hold expires.

How it works

A card payment has two steps. Authorization checks that the card is valid and the funds are there, and places the hold. Capture collects the money. Between the two, the customer may see a pending charge, but the merchant hasn't been paid.

If the merchant never captures, the issuer releases the hold. This usually takes a few business days, and the issuing bank, not the merchant, controls the timing.

Where it's used

Holds are common when the final amount isn't known at purchase:

• Hotels and car rentals hold an amount for incidentals.
• Gas stations hold an estimate before the pump total is known.
• Marketplaces check a card before fulfilling an order.

Holds vs charges

A hold is not a completed charge. Only a captured payment reaches your balance. This is why a pending amount can disappear from a customer's statement. The funds were reserved, then released, and never collected. In Stripe, you create a hold with a PaymentIntent that uses capture_method: manual, then capture it later.