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Apple Pay is one of the leading contactless payment platforms, with over 300 million users worldwide. As an Apple Pay user, you may occasionally experience delays or pending payments.
There are a few reasons why your Apple Pay transactions remain pending: for example, if you’re trying to send a payment to someone who doesn’t have an Apple device, or if you don’t have a strong internet connection.
In most cases, with Apple Pay, these delays are unavoidable and will resolve themselves within a few minutes or hours.
However, if you’re concerned about a pending Apple Pay payment, there are a few things you can do to try to speed up the process. For example, you can check the status of your payment in the Apple Pay app, or you can contact your bank or Apple Pay customer support for more information.
We will discuss everything you need to know when it comes to pending transactions in Apple Pay below.
Why is My Apple Payment Pending?
Having an Apple payment pending means that the payment hasn’t been charged to your bank account.
That occurs when there’s an authorization hold. If you’re paying for a particular purchase, the issuer has not posted the charge to your account.
An Apple Pay transaction could be pending if the recipient of the money is yet to accept it. With Apple Pay, you can manually accept payments or set it to automatic acceptance. If your recipient has to accept the payment manually, the transaction could be pending until they accept it.
Another reason why Apple Pay transactions could be pending is the holding charge. It applies when using a credit card.
A holding charge is the amount charged to your card when paying for an item that doesn’t have a set total. It allows the merchant to check if you have enough funds in your account to complete the transaction.
Card networks like Visa, American Express, or Mastercard require this for particular purchases. You’ll get the message on Apple Pay as pre-authorization when using a credit card to make payments.
In such a case, you’ll have to wait for the transaction to complete depending on the bank time frames.
Another reason that might cause a pending transaction with Apple Pay is if it’s a bank Holiday and consequently banks aren’t processing transactions. If this is the case, you’ll have to wait until the next business day for the transaction to process.
Does Pending Mean the Payment Went Through?
No, it means the process of sending the Apple Pay payment started, but it’s been placed on hold, and the recipient is yet to receive the funds.
Alternatively, it could mean that the person you were sending money to, whether it’s family or friend, hasn’t accepted the payment.
A few Apple Pay users have the automatically accept payment option that allows them to receive the payment immediately after you send it. However, if the person has set manually accept payment, they need to approve the transaction for it to be charged to your account and be approved.
How Long Does Apple Pay Stay Pending?
Apple Pay could stay pending for up to three days. Nonetheless, pending payments can last longer depending on several factors.
Transactions that take more than three days can be canceled.
How to Fix Apple Pay Pending?
Apple pay transactions could be pending due to a holding charge. To fix this, you’ll have to wait for the transaction to be processed, depending on the bank’s time frame.
Also, if your payment is pending yet, it’s been deducted from your account, but the recipient is yet to receive the payment, you’ll need to wait it out. It can take one to three business days or longer for the payment to clear and be sent to the recipient.
If the recipient has chosen to accept payment manually, you’ll need to inform them that the payment has been sent and they need,d to accept it to lift the pending status. You can also suggest setting their preferred payment to receive payments automatically. That can be done by:
- Opening the Apple Wallet app and clicking on Apple Cash Card.
- Click on the more button and choose automatically accept payments for fast transactions.
How to Accept a Pending Apple Pay Payment?
If you’ve received a payment, but it’s in a pending status, you can accept pending Apple Pay by:
- Launching Apple wallet on your device.
- Click on Apple Pay Cash Card to view your transaction history.
- Under the Apple Pay Cash Card button, select transactions to view any pending transactions.
- Tap on accept to receive the payment.
Can You Cancel a Pending Apple Pay Payment?
A pending Apple Pay payment is deposited into your account after seven days if the recipient doesn’t accept it. However, you can also cancel a pending payment if you don’t want to wait that long.
You can cancel a pending Apple Pay payment by:
- Launch your Apple Pay wallet app and tap on the Apple Pay cash card.
- Below the Apple Pay cash card, click on transactions.
- You’ll get all the latest transactions on the screen.
- Click on the pending Apple Pay payment and tap on cancel payment.
Alternatively, you can cancel the pending payment from the settings app:
- On your phone, launch the settings app and click on the wallet and Apple Pay.
- Choose Apple Cash then transactions to view the latest transactions.
- If there’s a pending payment, tap on it and select cancel payment on the next screen.
- After canceling the payment, you should see the status canceled displayed in your wallet.
After you cancel a pending payment, it will be refunded back into your account within three business days.
Note that if you don’t see the option of canceling the payment, it means the payment was processed successfully.
Can I Refund a Pending Purchase on Apple?
Yes. If you’ve made a purchase that is still pending on your Apple device, you can cancel the transaction and get a refund.
To cancel a pending purchase with Apple Pay:
- Open the Wallet app on your iPhone.
- Tap on the card that you used to make the purchase from the top of your screen.
- Find the pending purchase and tap on it.
- Tap on cancel to stop the transaction.
- You’ll get a confirmation pop-up; tap on confirm to cancel the purchase.
The refund will be processed, and you should receive your money in three to five business days.
How to Contact Apple Support
You can contact Apple support via phone on 1 800-275-2273 if you’re in the U.S. You can also reach Apple support through their Twitter account @AppleSupport.
Alternatively, you can chat with Apple Pay customer support at https://support.apple.com/apple-pay. Choose the Apple service and the issue you’re experiencing. Click on chat and sign in with your Apple ID, or you could use your Apple device’s serial number.
Wrapping Up
Apple Pay is one of the safest and most convenient payment systems. However, sometimes, you may experience pending payments that could last about three days. Hopefully, with our guide, you now know how to fix a pending transaction and how to get in touch with Apple customer support to find out why your Apple Pay payment is pending.
References
- https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204084
- https://support.apple.com/contact
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8198153
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253089541
- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8297434
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