Payments, Clearance Times & Settlements

As a payment provider, Pay Advantage accepts and processes payments on your behalf using a range of methods including credit/debit cards, BPAY, and Direct Debit. What happens after a payment is made depends on the payment type and the way banks and payment systems clear funds.

How Payments Are Processed

Credit & Debit Card Payments

• When a customer pays using a credit or debit card, their bank responds almost immediately to approve or decline the transaction.

• Once approved, the payment is marked as Ready to Settle and will be deposited into your nominated bank account on the next available business day or according to your settlement schedule.

• Card payments typically settle faster than bank-debit transactions due to the real-time authorisation process.

Direct Debit Payments

• Direct Debits use bank-to-bank processing, which doesn’t return an instant response to confirm success. Instead, each transaction goes through multiple stages before it is considered cleared.

• After a Direct Debit is submitted, it may take up to 3 business days for the customer’s bank to respond with confirmation that the funds are being released.

• Only once the bank confirms the transaction can it be marked Ready for Settlement, and then funds are deposited to your account on the next available business day.

• Because this is a projection of expected incoming funds, the Direct Debit Projection report is indicative only and cannot predict payment failures or dishonours that may occur.

BPAY Payments

• BPAY payments are generally processed quickly if the customer pays before their bank’s cut-off time. In most cases, the payment is processed that evening or the next business day.

• Once processed, BPAY funds are included in the next settlement batch to your nominated account.

• BPAY is governed by Australian payment systems, and payments are typically considered cleared once processed.

Settlement Timing

• A payment marked Ready to Settle means it has cleared all internal checks and is queued for settlement. Funds will be deposited into your nominated bank account on the next available business day unless otherwise scheduled.

• For most merchants, this results in funds appearing in your bank account within 1–2 business days after clearance.

• You will receive an email notification when a settlement credit is made to your account. Reports under Settlements in the Reports section provide detailed breakdowns.

Held or Flagged Payments

• Occasionally, a payment may be held from settlement if our systems flag it for further review. Common reasons include:

  • A newly onboarded account with limited history

  • Recent disputes or stop payments

  • Large spikes in volume or unusual transaction patterns

  • Issues with the account used to debit fees

• Held payments are reviewed by our support team, who will either release funds for settlement or contact you to discuss the issue further.

Refunds and Chargebacks

• Refunds require the payment to first settle and clear before they can be processed. This additional movement of funds may take several business days to complete.

• In some situations, refunds initiated before a payment is determined to be successful or failed may not be recoverable if the payment later fails. For this reason, merchants should wait for a payment to process fully before issuing a refund.