My credit card was declined, but I’m still showing a pending charge.

Issue: Your bank or credit card is showing a pending charge for one or several declined transactions.

Explanation
If a debit card or check card is used to make a payment, and the purchase was not accepted for any reason (failed AVS or CCV verification), please be aware that most banks will hold the “authorized” funds (counting against your balance until the authorization clears) even if your order was rejected by our security measures. Such authorizations are merely “pending” charges, and funds will not be transferred because the charge attempt failed our security measures.

The most common reason for the failed transaction is that both the billing address and the zip code entered do not match the billing address on file with the bank that issued your debit/check/credit card. Our Address Verification System (AVS) security measures will reject any transaction for a billing address mismatch.

Copper Creek does not have the capability nor the obligation to release the bank’s temporary hold on authorized funds. Since we do not have the capability to release the bank’s temporary hold, we can not be responsible for the policies of the customer’s banking institution regarding the holding of authorized funds. Please note that authorization fund holds last for varying periods, depending on the issuing credit card company’s policy. The period may be as little as 1-3 days (which is the case in an overwhelming majority of these instances) or as long as several months.

What can you do?
In most cases, you don’t need to do anything, but monitor your funds and watch the pending charges drop off of your statement within a few business days. If you’d like to take additional action, read on.

The single best thing a customer can do in this situation is to contact their issuing credit card company or bank in order to determine their policy for releasing these pending authorizations. We will be happy to work with your bank to resolve this issue. However, we ask that you please contact your bank first, as many banks have different ways of releasing the pending charges (some will provide a form for Copper Creek to fill out and return to them, others require a signed letter from us, still others can release funds upon receiving a phone call directly from Copper Creek).

Resolution of this issue will be much faster and more efficient if you’ve already determined the correct course of action to follow in accordance with your bank’s policies.

Once you’ve determined your bank’s policy, you can contact our customer service agents using this link.