Payment On Hold | Payment paused for review
This status indicates the payment is temporarily paused and will not complete until a review or prerequisite step is resolved.
What This Code Means
“Payment On Hold” indicates the payment has been accepted into the system but is not proceeding to completion due to a hold condition. Holds can be triggered by risk screening, compliance checks, verification requirements, operational exceptions, or policy gates. This status is an intermediate processing state, not a final decline. It does not mean the payment is guaranteed to fail, and it does not confirm that funds were settled. It indicates the system has intentionally paused processing to maintain safety or correctness. The hold may apply to the payment itself or to related account actions.
Where Users Usually See This Code
- Transaction history showing a payment in “hold” status
- Banking app banners indicating a review is in progress
- Merchant or processor systems showing payments held for review
Why This Code Appears
- Risk review is pending (fraud or anomaly screening)
- Compliance checks are pending
- Identity verification is required or incomplete
- Operational exceptions require review before posting or settlement
What Typically Happens Next
- The payment remains paused until the hold condition resolves
- The status updates to completed, returned, reversed, or failed based on the final decision
- The platform may restrict additional payments depending on account-level policy
What This Code Is Not
- It is not a confirmed decline or rejection
- It is not the same as “payment reversed”
- It is not necessarily a technical malfunction
Troubleshooting Checklist
- □ Monitor the payment record for a terminal status update
- □ Check whether the platform shows any notice indicating a required verification step
- □ Avoid creating duplicate payments while the original is on hold unless clearly advised by the platform
- □ If the hold persists beyond normal expectations, contact official support for status clarification
Notes And Edge Cases
Hold states can vary in duration based on queue volume and policy. Some platforms hold only certain payment types (for example, new payees or unusually large amounts). A payment can remain on hold even if the user session ended successfully; the hold is typically an asynchronous backend state. In multi-system environments, an item may show “on hold” while downstream services evaluate it, then update later without user action.