Pre Authorisation in van hire

When hiring a van in Wigan we have a few options regarding the excess deposit which is left as a Pre-Authorisation.

At the depot you will be told that this transaction can be held for a certain amount of days

Banks and card providers aren’t really “choosing” to hold a pending pre-authorisation — the delay is mostly baked into how the payment system works.

How does a Authorisation work?

1. The merchant sets the pre-auth, and the bank just waits for the final charge

When you insert your card at the Wigan van hire branch, we place a pre-authorization hold to check that the funds are available.
After that:

The merchant has up to several days (often 3–7, sometimes up to 30 depending on the business type and network rules) to either:
- finalize the transaction
- cancel it
- or simply do nothing until it expires.

Banks can’t release the hold until the merchant’s authorization window ends. The rental branch will always explain this before making the transaction.

2. Releasing a hold early can cause double charging

If the bank released the hold immediately, and the merchant later finalized the transaction, you could end up with:

both the real charge
and the original amount coming back again

To avoid this, banks keep the hold until:

the merchant completes the charge, or
the hold automatically expires

3. Different industries have longer allowed windows

Some businesses get longer windows because the final amount can change, such as:

Hotels (room service, deposits) – often 5–30 days
Car rentals – similar
Gas stations – 1–3 days
Restaurants – pending until tip is added

Banks follow the rules set by the card networks (Visa/Mastercard/AmEx), not their own preference.

4. Some merchants never “complete” the transaction

If a merchant forgets to finalize or cancel the pre-auth, the bank must wait for the authorization to expire naturally. That’s why a hold sometimes sticks for 7 days even though nothing was purchased.

5. Banks don’t actually have your money during the hold

It’s not money they’re using — it’s just a temporary reduction to your available balance, not your ledger balance. The bank isn’t profiting from the delay.

Authorisation Delay

If you seem to experience a longer than anticipated delay in funds cancelling.