HRoth - 1:08 am on Feb 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

You can't wait too long to capture either, though. If you do, your authorization can expire. Or if the customer is using a gift card or a debit card, the pending debit drops off. You still have a right to that money, but the customer doesn't know that or can forget they made the charge, and then they can end up with an overdraft or you can end up with no money. This has happened to me a few times with gift cards, maybe once or twice with debit cards where I waited too long to capture the authorization expired. Now I capture within a week's time at the most. It normally takes me two weeks to process an order. I have this info on my main page and during checkout. I rarely get people complaining about when I charge their card, and when they do, it is almost always that they used the card through Paypal, which charges them immediately. I myself buy from places that ship a few weeks or more after charging. <shrug> My stuff is not out of a box or from a drop-shipper.