When you use the Stripe service on freetobook you have an option to pre-authorise guests’ cards. This “puts a hold” on the funds from the guest’s card which you can then capture (within a time limit). The funds that have been pre-authorised are ringfenced for you and the guest’s card limit is reduced as if the payment had gone out.  

Visa has changed the duration of the authorisation from 7 days to 5 days, this change was made on 14th April 2024.  

As a direct result we have had to shorten the pre-authorisation period to 5 days for all cards with immediate effect. It is regrettable that we were not informed of this change in advance. We have had to help our customers deal with the change whilst we reprogram for the shorter “hold” period and establish who has changed what. 

Normally we get advance warning of material changes so we can have everything ready.  This explanation note was just added to Stripe public documents yesterday (25 April 2024), after we raised the issue with them. 

As of April 14, 2024, Visa has shortened the authorization window for online Merchant-Initiated Transactions from 7 days to 5 days, and they have lengthened the authorization window for in-person (Terminal) transactions from 2 days to 5 days. 

A link to the Stripe documentation is here.