Pending charges - FAQs

Overview

A pending charge, or pending transaction, is a charge that has been authorized, but has not yet cleared. This can happen when a vendor is waiting to finalize the charge amount, when a payment is made outside of business hours, or when a travel vendor is putting an authorization hold (like a security deposit) on your funds. Ramp does not offer a general way to cancel or void a pending card transaction, so in most cases you will need to contact the merchant to ask them to reverse or release the authorization.

Frequently asked questions

How long do pending charges take to clear?

Most pending charges will take a maximum of 9 days to be finalized, although it will often happen sooner. Pending charges from travel vendors can take up to 30 days to be finalized, especially in the case of a hotel or car rental authorization.

Can I cancel, stop, or void a pending card transaction?

Ramp does not offer a general way to cancel or void a pending card transaction, and in most cases cannot release an authorization hold for you. The merchant usually needs to reverse or release the authorization before it clears, so the most reliable way to resolve a pending charge is to contact the vendor who made the charge and ask them to reverse or release it; otherwise, the hold drops off on its own once it expires. There is one exception: for a pending hotel authorization (such as incidentals or other hotel holds) after checkout, contact Ramp Support — in some cases Ramp can release the hold, though this depends on the transaction and isn't always possible. If the charge is fraudulent, you may be able to dispute it from the web app while it is still pending. For other disputes, you may need to wait until the transaction has cleared.

Can I delete or remove a posted (cleared) transaction?

No. Once a card transaction has cleared, it cannot be deleted, removed, or voided. If the charge was incorrect, you can dispute the transaction . If the purchase was accidental or personal, you can repay the transaction . Refunds from the merchant appear as a separate credit transaction rather than removing the original charge.

Can I repay a pending transaction?

Yes. If you initiate repayment for a pending transaction, Ramp queues the repayment and processes it after the transaction settles. If you initiated a full repayment and the final settled amount is higher than the pending amount, the queued repayment is canceled and you'll receive an email notification.

What do I do when I have a pending hotel charge?

Note: If you received an email from Ramp about your company’s migration to the updated missing-items auto-lock experience, see Missing-items auto-locks for cards and funds for migration details and instructions for the new experience.

Employees do not get notification reminders for transaction missing items if it’s a pending hotel charge/transaction until the charge is cleared. If the funds have an auto-locking policy, there will be an exemption for missing items on pending hotel transactions so that the funds will not lock. Additionally, the pending transaction will not be displayed on the main homepage and will only be displayed in the transaction tab after clicking on the transaction. To resolve or speed up a pending hotel hold after checkout, see Can I cancel, stop, or void a pending card transaction?.

What do I do when I have a pending gas charge?

If the gas hold amount is $100, $151, $250, $300, or $500, you will not get any notification reminders until the charge is cleared. If the funds have an auto-locking policy, there will be an exemption for missing items on pending gas transactions so that the funds will not lock.

What do I do when I have a pending car rental charge?

For legacy missing-item auto-locks configured within individual submission policies, employees continue to receive missing-item reminders for pending car rentals, and the auto-locking policy continues to apply.

For the Alpha experience, see Missing-items auto-locks for cards and funds.

Do pending transactions impact card limits?

Yes. Pending transactions count against your card limit.

How do they affect card balance?

They eat up your remaining balance. For example, if you have a $1,000 limit and have a hold of $200, then you only have $800 spending power.