Double credit card entries or no keys and bank say they paid

[Frank]

We get support tickets quite often (some of them quite "colorful") inquiring about double entries on the SlySoft.com purchase.
Or the bank says they paid us money and the purchase clearly failed for one reason or other.

The assumption is that we billed twice or billed without shipping the license email. That's not true, of course, and here's why.

Outside the Euro-Zone the bank has to do a foreign exchange transaction cycle and banks do not or can not do this "on-the-fly" so it is done in two steps:

1. Pre-authorization entry (clear the payment/verify the exchange rate)

2. Actual payment and charge at the current exchange rate to the Euro

Your statement will show the EURO amount to be paid to slysoft.com pending authorization and the amount in your home currency. Another entry will appear shortly thereafter and this is where many consumers believe we got paid twice. This second entry may differ from the first by a small amount.

Unfortunately, very few banks have a block or field on the statement called "pre-authorized" and the "doing the math" entry looks like another charge. The slight difference in the net amount is due to the final conversion to the Euro.

For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_hold