How Long Do Credit Card Payments Take To Process? [Fully explained]

Credit cards, over the years, have gained great traction when it comes to making purchases. These shiny plastic rectangles allow delayed payment and provide irresistible rewards to customers. Any person with a bank account can have a credit card. Many customers wait for a long to get their hands on a premium credit card. While the importance of credit cards is not a mystery, what goes behind a credit card transaction, and how long do credit card payments take to process? Check out the Valid MasterCard Credit Card Generator to generate the valid MasterCard debit card number.

While a single swipe or a reading of the chip completes a transaction made via the credit card, there is some amount of complexity involved in processing this transaction. Businesses and retail outlets are primarily involved in the other side of a credit card payment, where money has to be transferred into their account. In this article, we understand the process of this transaction and how long it takes for a credit card transaction to go through.

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How Long Does It Take For Payments To Process?

Credit cards issued by all banks/credit card companies follow a few basic steps to process a transaction.

Authorization

1. After the customer provides their card for making a payment and the merchant validates the card using a machine or any other means, the authorization step commences.
2. The issuing bank runs a verification process lasting a few minutes, which authenticates a transaction and approves a valid transaction. In case of an invalid transaction, the issuing bank will decline the payment.

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Settling The Payment (Merchant)

1. This part of the process is not accessible to the merchant towards whom a customer has made payment. It entails the distribution of money by the issuing bank to the merchant.
2. The merchant must keep track of the payments made via credit card and send this data to respective issuing banks.
3. The issuing banks credit money into the merchant’s bank. The time involved here ranges from 48 to 72 hours.

Settling The Payment (Customer)

While this does not directly fall under the ambit of the transaction process, from the customer’s end, the repayment of the credit card payment must happen at the end of every billing cycle. This does not involve the merchant or merchant bank in any way and is a transaction done solely between the customer and the customer’s bank. Wanted to generate Bulk credit card numbers? Click here!

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How Long Does A Transaction Take To Process (Step By Step)?

To provide a direct answer to how long do credit card payments take to process, have a look at the steps given below:

1. A customer can make payments online or physically at stores which are known as point of sale (POS) terminals.
2. Upon making a payment, card and bank-related data go to the payment processor. The information stored in the payment process goes to the required credit card network.
3. The credit network authenticates the information received via the payment processor. This information is later sent to the bank of the customer or the issuing bank
4. After the credit card network forwards the information to the issuing bank, the bank verifies the information and checks if there are sufficient funds for the payment to go through in the bank account of the customer.
5. If funds are sufficient, the transaction is complete, and they provide a receipt of payment. This ends the customer’s end of the transaction.
6. The merchant must now forward all relevant data/payments batch-wise to its bank, also known as the merchant bank. Forwarding of this payment information happens via the payment processor.
7. Subsequently, the merchant bank issues a request to the issuing bank of the customer for settlement.
8. The payment settlement takes place between the merchant bank and issuing bank. After this, the merchant bank charges some fee over the amount received and compensates the merchant with the remaining fee.

These steps address the question of how long do credit card payments take to process.

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How Long Does It Take To Process A Credit Payment Online?

Since online transactions do not happen physically, another element which includes to the payment processing for credit cards. This includes the payment gateway. The payment gateway acts like a card reader and forwards all relevant data to the payment processor. Wanted to check whether your credit card number is valid or not? Just check it by clicking here!

Fees Involved In Processing

A significant element in the processing of credit card payments is the fees levied at various points by banks.

Credit Card Processing Fee

This is the feeswhich the credit card networks charge and is borne by the merchant.

It differs from one network to another and also depends on the mode of payment. Offline and online payments attract different fees.

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Maintenance Fee

Service providers or the payment gateway charge this fee to cover their services.

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Set-Up Fee

This fee, borne by the merchant, is paid initially to link the payment gateway with the online portal where the transaction occurs.

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Discount Fee

The payment gateway charges a certain amount to process a transaction. Different payment gateways charge different percentages depending on the mode of payment, credit card, and credit card network.

The percentage of payment charged ranges between 1.5 to 3.5%

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FAQ’s

Conclusion

Thus, we come to the end of our quest to find out how long do credit card payments take to process. The payment processing for a credit card is not much of a concern for the customer as their transaction ends with a single swipe, and the customer must repay this amount at the end of a billing cycle. For the merchant, however, the process takes some time as they must coordinate with their bank, payment processors, and credit card networks to validate payment and ask for fair compensation after the levying of all service charges.

Since users have now understood how long do credit card payments take to process and what goes behind this process; they must exercise caution while making payments and constantly keep themselves updated with changing interest fees, terms and conditions, and other rules of their credit cards, credit card networks, various payment gateway, and the issuing bank.

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