Merchant Post Time Requirements (Q for 12-06)

What it the time frame a merchant has to post a debit card transaction to a client's account?

According to the Visa guidelines for merchant processing Page 11:

"Deposit Time Limits
Deposit your Visa transaction receipts within five calendar days of the transaction date. The sooner you deposit transaction receipts with your merchant bank, the sooner you get paid! For card-not-present transactions, the transaction date is the ship date, not the order date. Transactions deposited more than 30 days after the original transaction date may be charged back to you."

http://usa.visa.com/download/business/ac...a_merchants.pdf

Swiped transactions follow the above guidelines.
True "Pin-Coded" transactions are two-day transactions because these are swept from the terminal and posted by Visa, etc.

The payor bank must honor the item if they will suffer no loss no matter how late the item is received. If a loss is suffered we can use the chargeback of "late presentment" (or something like that). If you get goods or services you have to pay for them...even if it's past the 30 days.

When I went to MasterCard University an example was of a customer who bought a very expensive Rug in Asia and had it shipped back home to the states. The charge did not appear for two years and the customer tried to dispute it as "it took too long to post" (Try to find a chargeback code for that one)...no chargeback, the funds where there...the customer recived their goods. End of Story.

The answer to this question depends on the definition of "post."

Under various rules and legal interpretations, a merchant is not supposed to submit a transaction unless it represents a valid purchase for goods/services. Processing the transaction before goods/services are delivered is not allowed unless the transaction is properly identified as an advanced deposit (up to 100% of the purchase price). Failing that identification, the merchant should not post the transaction until and unless goods/services are rendered which can be up to the expiration date of the card used in the transaction.

From the time of delivery of goods/services, under NACHA rules there is no restriction on when the transaction must post. Under Visa and MasterCard rules, the merchant has 5 days to post the transaction into Interchange unless there is a legal obligation to hold the draft. In no event should the submission be delayed more than 30 days.

CAWorkingGirl - MasterCard changed the delivery timeframe requirements for Merchandise Not Received to 540 days about 4 years ago. Visa has no such restriction for Non-Receipt of Merchandise. There is a caveat that your example sidesteps and that is the expiration date on the card. Regardless of the validity of the transaction when the consumer engaged, once the card is expired, it's expired and no transaction that was created with the expired card is valid past the expiration date (except for dangling authorizations that are still validly outstanding when the card expires). Otherwise, the merchant must complete a new transaction receipt with the newly issued card. Most banks have 2-year expiration thresholds. If the card was valid for more than 2 years, then the bank deserves the headache it got.