When a cardholder makes a payment with an Adyen-issued card, Adyen places a hold on the balance account. The hold reserves the authorised amount of funds until the payment is captured, or until the hold is released. Adyen releases holds in two cases: when the processing merchant cancels the authorisation, or when the authorisation expires. This page explains how a hold is released and how long a hold lasts for each card scheme. Use this information to answer cardholder questions about funds that are held but not yet captured.
Who can cancel an authorisation
Only the processing merchant can cancel an authorisation. Cancellation, also called authorisation reversal, is an active request. The merchant sends a cancellation to Adyen, and Adyen then releases the held amount to the cardholder's available balance.
As an issuer, Adyen cannot cancel an authorisation or change its expiry timeline without the processing merchant's request. You also cannot cancel an existing authorisation. Instead, you can prevent unwanted authorisations by configuring transaction rules.
A merchant can cancel an authorisation for different reasons. For example, the merchant cancels when the authorisation response is missing, delayed, undeliverable, or contains errors. A merchant can also cancel based on its own policies, even after Adyen approves the transaction. If a cardholder wants to know why a merchant cancelled an authorisation, the cardholder must contact the merchant.
When authorisations expire
Expiration is a process that happens automatically. Every authorisation expires automatically after a set period. When the authorisation expires, Adyen returns the reserved amount to the cardholder's available balance and sends a balancePlatform.transfer.updated webhook message.
Adyen controls expiration internally, and you cannot change the timeline. The time until an authorisation expires depends on two things:
- The authorisation type that the merchant sends in the payment request.
- The card scheme of the issued card.
When Adyen receives the authorisation, we send a balancePlatform.transfer.created webhook. This webhook includes the authorisation type in the authorisationType field and the merchant category code (MCC) in the merchant details. Use these values to determine how long the authorisation stays active. The following sections describe the expiration times for Visa and Mastercard.
Visa
For Visa, the MCC and the merchant location determine when the authorisation expires. If the MCC and location do not match a condition in the following table, the authorisation expires after 7 days.
| Merchant category | Merchant location | Expires after |
|---|---|---|
| Cruise, lodging, or vehicle rental | Any | 31 days |
| Commuter transportation, bus, or railway merchants | US | 3 days |
| Other | Any | 7 days |
Visa can also extend an authorisation to up to 30 days when the acquirer requests it, for example for some card-not-present transactions. This is not limited to the MCCs in the table, and only applies to card-not-present transactions.
Mastercard
For Mastercard, the authorisation type determines when the authorisation expires:
- A pre-authorisation expires after 30 days. The merchant can adjust a pre-authorisation to increase or decrease the value, or extend it to keep the same value for another 30 days.
- A final or default authorisation expires after 7 days.
| Authorisation type | Merchant category | Expires after |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-authorisation | All | 30 days |
| Final or default | All | 7 days |
Captures after an authorisation expires
A merchant can send a capture request even after an authorisation expires. As the issuing bank, Adyen must honor and process every capture request, regardless of the authorisation status.
Because Adyen processes captures for expired authorisations, an amount that has been returned to the available balance can still be captured later. Take this into account when you tell cardholders which funds are available.