Credit card payment is a &#x27;2 phase&#x27; process. The second phase you are referring to as settlement - moving funds from the issuing bank to merchant&#x27;s bank does take days.<p>The first phase of the process - authorization, when successful not only makes sure the customer has enough credit on their account, it also reduces their buying power by the grand total of the auth thus guaranteeing the funds to the merchant. And it takes 2-4 seconds.