In message , at 12:51:52 on Sun, 26 Feb
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
There are still two steps: the merchant gets authorization at the time
of purchase and then posts the transaction at some later time,
potentially several days later.

You may not be _aware_ of the second step, but it's there.

It's a plausible theory, but I don't understand why it would be like
that with C&P. The card company is sent all the details in order to
provide authorisation. Why would they need to be sent it again?

Does an ATM have this "two pass" process as well?
--
Roland Perry