What is a reserve on payments?

💡 Money from online sales may be reserved and will arrive in your Holvi account after a preset time. 

A reserve is a temporary hold on a business’ funds for a set period of time – in the case of customers selling via the Holvi Online Store, this period is in principle 7 days, but can be set longer or shorter by Holvi at our discretion. 

Reserves are used to cover any anticipated losses that may result from your business’ processing activity. This is a common practice for financial institutions like Holvi, to make sure businesses are able to cover disputes and refunds from their customers.

Funds held in reserve will be paid out once the reserve term ends, minus any customer refunds or disputes that may have been covered by the reserve.

Why does Holvi reserve payments?

As a financial institution that processes payments, Holvi is responsible for the disputes and refunds that arise when businesses accept payments from their customers but are unable to fulfil their orders.

When disputes happen, the payment amount is usually deducted from a business’ account balance. However, in some cases it’s possible that the funds in the account aren’t sufficient to cover any dispute amounts. To avoid such situations, we retain the right to place reserves to cover any possible future disputes, to protect both your business and your customers.

What amount is reserved, and for how long?

Holvi reserves an amount that can be up to the full amount of the online store sale for a period of time determined by Holvi. The period of reserve begins at the moment an online sale is made and ends upon expiry of the time specified by Holvi. After that,  the funds become available in your Holvi account.

How do I check the status of a reserve?

You can check the status of a payment in your transactions list any time – view a complete list of our payment statuses here. To find out when an individual reserve is lifted, click on the transaction in question. In the transaction details you’ll find the reserve end date, when your funds will become available to you.

Can a reserve be extended?

The duration of the period of reserve is at the discretion of Holvi and is subject to any other obligations the Customer may have. However, it is usual that the period of reserve does not exceed 7 days.