Have you recently experienced a pending transaction to Walmart disappear from your bank account after ordering a Walmart grocery curbside pickup?
Many customers have also had this very strange, yet very common, situation occur.
In this article, we explain why this happens — and what you can expect.
Why Did My Pending Transaction to Walmart Disappear From my Bank Account?
After ordering a Walmart grocery pickup, Walmart will first immediately put a pending charge on your account to ensure that you have the funds. This pending transaction will then disappear. Once you actually pay for the order, you will be charged, though this may take a few days.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Pending transactions to Walmart may disappear after ordering for a grocery pickup, as this transaction was only to confirm that you have the money in your account.
- Later, once you pick up the order, you will be charged.
- Walmart will normally charge you within a few days of your pickup, at the very latest, though some extreme circumstances may occur.
This situation can quickly become confusing. Below, we explain what you need to know and why this happens!
1. Walmart Charges You First to Ensure You Have Funds
First of all, it seems that only customers who use Walmart’s grocery curbside pickup experience this problem. They see an initial pending transaction, but then it goes away… only for the transaction to be posted more than a few days later.
Let’s jump into why this happens.
Firstly, Walmart will often charge your account immediately when you order — but they won’t actually take any money out of your account. They will just ensure that you have the money there for your order.
It appears that when Walmart first started doing grocery pickups, they were having issues with people’s cards declining when they came to pick everything up. To save this from happening, they will charge immediately.
However, this “charge” will only appear as a pending transaction. It will not actually take any money out of your account. It might not even be the price of your actual order.
Many gas stations do this, to use a similar example. They will charge your account $.01 immediately to ensure you have money. Then, later on, the actual transaction will post a few days later — of the actual amount you spent.
Walmart does the same thing here!
You’ll then likely see this pending charge go away. Your account won’t be charged.
While you may think this means that you weren’t charged at all, this doesn’t mean you won’t be charged…
2. Walmart Will Then Charge the Correct Amount of Your Order
This brings us to the second step of this situation.
Once you pick up your order, you will be charged. If any price changes occurred — for example, if they could not substitute an out-of-stock item, resulting in your order being less — this will be reflected here.
However, it may take a few days for this transaction to actually appear in your bank account. Every bank seems to work differently in this regard.
Some customers state that they are charged immediately by Walmart after picking up their order. Others state that Walmart does not charge them until a few days later.
As a result of this, some customers state that the pending transaction disappeared (which we discussed above). But then it will reappear days later and actually charge their account.
This is normal. It appears this is just how Walmart does things when people use their grocery pickup service!
Conclusion
In conclusion, Walmart charges your bank immediately after you order a grocery pickup. However, this charge only appears as a pending transaction. Walmart does not take money out of your account at this time.
This only occurs so that Walmart can ensure that you have money in your account. Then, once you pick up your order, Walmart will officially charge you. This charge will hit your bank account and money will leave your account.