{"title":"Authorisation holds","category":"default","creationDate":1786964261,"content":"

When a cardholder makes a payment with an Adyen-issued card, Adyen places a hold on the balance account<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

Who can cancel an authorisation<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

When authorisations expire<\/h2>\n

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<\/a> and sends a balancePlatform.transfer.updated<\/a> webhook message.<\/p>\n

Adyen controls expiration internally, and you cannot change the timeline. The time until an authorisation expires depends on two things:<\/p>\n