More than coffee!

Apart from French champagne and oysters to inspired romantic music, the French adore coffee. For most of us fresh mornings also start with a cup of Americano or delicate latte! So what’s behind this morning's tradition?
We usually go to the nearest coffee shop, pay by card through POS-terminal, enter PIN-code or confirm paymentby signature on the slip. If you have a contactless card, you don’t need to confirm such settlement at all.And that’s it, one would think: all you have to do is enjoy every sip of pure energy. We may not even know that the payment process is not yet finished.

But the thing is that before being credited to the account of the coffee shop, the money you paid for this cup of coffee is blocked in the account. After the payment the amount will not be available for spending.

From this point, the store (in this case, the coffee shop) has a maximum of 30 calendar days to debit the amount blocked in the account. Normally, it happens within a few days.

So how do you know whether the money for the cup of coffee has been debited?

You need to check your card account statement via Internet banking or mobile app CA Mobile Ukraine. Funds that have been blocked but not debited yet are marked with a “grey lock”, and actually debited funds are marked with a check mark “done”.

The same procedure is in place in case of Internet settlements, for example, when we buy tickets for the first night of a movie at a cinema’s web-site. The only difference is that in such case the settlement is to be confirmed by entering CVV2-code (three digits on the reverse of the card) and 3-D secure password. Therefore, you should keep confidential and not disclose your PIN and CVV-2 codes and 3-D secure passwords sent to your mobile phone for the sake of your accounts’ safety.