Why is the money I sent on hold? (2024)

FAQs

Why is the money I sent on hold? ›

Sometimes, we may place a payment on hold for 24 hours as a security precaution. This can happen for many reasons, such as you haven't sent money in a while or you're sending money to someone new. We just need to confirm it's you sending the money.

A transfer is typically put on hold because we need more information from you before the transfer is sent. This could mean: You need to verify your bank account. You need to update a phone number or address.

An account hold is similar to an account freeze, where a financial institution prevents specific activity on an account. A hold is commonly a temporary delay in making funds available, like when a check is deposited. The bank delays access to the money, even though those funds appear in the account.

Deposit holds typically range from 2-7 business days, depending on the reason for the hold. For deposits made on weekends, funds are considered deposited on Monday (the first business day), so the hold will go into effect the next business day (Tuesday).

A pending credit card purchase may take up to three days for the merchant to receive the funds and process the purchase amount.

This period is often less than 24 hours if transfers are placed before 4 p.m. ET on a business day. Once your transfer processes, you can use your money to trade,¹ but you won't be able to withdraw or transfer funds to other accounts until after the hold period, if one applies.

When figuring out how to remove a hold on a bank account, you can often contact your bank and find out what caused the hold. If it was a pre-authorization hold placed by a merchant on a debit card transaction, you might be able to contact them directly and have them remove it.

Other reasons the bank may elect to place a hold is if you recently opened your account, your deposit is unusually large, or your account has recently been overdrawn. A hold may also be placed if the bank is concerned that the check may not be paid.

Contact Your Bank

Usually, if there's a pre-authorization hold on your bank account due to a debit card transaction, calling your bank to verify that you made the purchase could fix the issue.

Payment hold means that payments to be made in good faith for services rendered will be put on hold during the period of an investigation/forensic audit which has no predetermined length of time in days.

How do I remove hold funds? ›

You can check your bank's hold policies (usually given to you when the account was opened and/or available on the bank's website) to see if you can wait it out. Or, you can contact the financial institution for more information about your situation and to request for the hold to be lifted.

Be Careful About Check Holds

Until your check deposit clears and you see the amount deposited into your checking or savings account, avoid spending the money. If the check has not cleared and you use the funds to pay a bill or make a purchase, you might wind up with an overdraft fee.

This means that you will be unable to withdraw, transfer (EFT or Interac e-Transfer®) or pay bills using funds that are being held. The expiry of the hold period means that you can access the entire amount of your deposit, but it does not guarantee that the cheque cannot be returned to us unpaid.

An authorization or pre-authorization hold occurs when a merchant verifies that sufficient funds are available in your account for an electronic transaction. They put a temporary lock on a certain amount of your balance until you settle the payment. This appears as a pending charge on your account.

However, if a financial institution decides to place a hold on funds, it will generally hold an item for the number of days likely required for the item to reach the branch/financial institution that holds the account on which it was written and, to determine if there are sufficient funds in that account.

The bank places a hold on your account as a means of assuring payment to the merchant and making sure you don't spend more than you have.

What is a hold and why is it used? Banks place holds on checks to make sure that the check payer has the bank funds necessary to clear it. In addition to protecting your bank, a hold can protect you from spending funds from a check that is later returned unpaid.

The Federal Reserve says that a "reasonable" extended hold generally means one additional business day (total of two business days) for a bank's own checks and five additional business days (total of seven) for most other checks.

You can check your bank's hold policies (usually given to you when the account was opened and/or available on the bank's website) to see if you can wait it out. Or, you can contact the financial institution for more information about your situation and to request for the hold to be lifted.