Credit Card Holds

Does Propcart support credit card holds?

No. Propcart does not support placing a hold or pre-authorization on a customer’s credit card.

When a prop house can’t collect a certificate of insurance, the usual fallback is to take a security deposit. But deposits can be clunky and time-consuming to manage, and placing a simple credit card hold would seem like a much easier alternative.

Unfortunately, as explained below, this approach isn’t practical for prop house rentals.

Does Stripe support credit card holds?

Yes, Stripe supports credit card holds, but with important limitations that depend on the card network (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AmEx) and the merchant category.

• Standard holds:
  All merchant categories are limited to 7 days (or 5 days for Visa merchant-initiated holds).
  👉 Learn more about Stripe holds

• Extended holds:
  Certain merchant categories can extend holds up to 30 days, but prop houses are typically excluded.
  👉 Read about Stripe 30-day hold limitations

Why Propcart doesn’t offer card holds

For rentals lasting a week or longer, these hold duration limits introduce major inconsistencies. A hold’s expiration would depend on the customer’s card network, making it confusing and unreliable, especially if you need to explain why a Visa hold behaves differently than an AmEx or Discover hold.

We also explored a possible workaround where Propcart could automatically renew a 7-day hold each week. However, this approach isn’t reliable:

• The renewal could fail if the customer cancels their card or exceeds their credit limit.
• Even minor system errors could result in lost holds or missed renewals.

Because of these risks, we don’t consider credit card holds a dependable or professional solution for prop rental transactions.

How to place a hold on a credit card

However, if you want to go down this rabbit hole, you can pre-authorize a credit card for 5-7 days on the Stripe Dashboard.

1. Log into your Stripe Dashboard

2. Create a new Stripe payment

3. Manually enter the credit card info and check the Capture funds later checkbox.

4. You can then note this hold in the Private Notes of the Account or the Order.

5. Stripe doesn't allow holds longer than 7 days. If you need the hold to last longer than 7 days, you'll need to renew the hold every 7 days after it automatically expires.