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when does best buy charge for pre orders

Best Buy usually does not fully charge you for a pre-order until the item is about to ship or is ready for pickup, but you will often see temporary “test” holds before that.

When Best Buy Actually Charges You

For most standard card payments (credit/debit):

  • They place a temporary authorization hold when you first place the pre-order to verify your card and funds.
  • That pending hold usually drops off after a few business days and the money returns to your available balance (nothing is actually taken yet).
  • The real charge happens when the item ships or becomes ready for store pickup; that’s when your card is officially billed.
  • If you ordered other in-stock items with the pre-order, those get charged as each item ships separately.

In other words, “When does Best Buy charge for pre-orders?”
→ At shipment/ready-for-pickup time , with earlier temporary holds along the way.

Special Case: PayPal Pre-Orders

PayPal is handled differently:

  • PayPal orders are typically charged immediately at the time you place the pre-order, not at shipment.
  • Because PayPal authorizations can expire, Best Buy notes that PayPal-based pre-orders are only valid for a limited window (e.g., around 180 days in some regions), so long-term pre-orders with PayPal can be risky.

If you want to avoid being charged right away for a long-distance release date, use a regular credit/debit card instead of PayPal.

Holds, Re-Authorizations, and “Weird” Activity

Many people get confused by the repeated pending charges:

  • Best Buy may place a small or full-amount temporary hold multiple times in the weeks before launch to confirm your card is still valid and funded.
  • These appear as charges that then disappear after a few days; they are not final payments. Banks often show them as “pending” or “authorization only.”
  • Final billing only happens once: when your order is actually shipping or marked ready for pickup.

A simple example:

You pre-order a game months early. You see a pending charge for the game price for a few days, then it drops. About a few days before launch, another pending hold appears. When the game ships, that hold turns into the real, settled charge.

In-Store vs. Online Pre-Orders

How you get the item matters:

  • Online shipping pre-orders
    • Temp hold at order placement, then final charge shortly before shipping (often just a few days before release).
  • Store pickup / in-store style pre-orders
    • Often you pay when you pick the item up, though Best Buy may still run a small authorization beforehand to verify the card.

Quick HTML Summary Table

Here’s an HTML table version since you asked for structured info:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Pre-order type</th>
      <th>When you see a charge</th>
      <th>Is it a real charge?</th>
      <th>When you actually pay</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Online (credit/debit)</td>
      <td>Temp hold when order is placed; sometimes again a few days before release.[web:1][web:2][web:8]</td>
      <td>Temp holds only, usually drop after a few days.[web:1][web:2]</td>
      <td>When the item ships or is ready for pickup.[web:2][web:5]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Online with PayPal</td>
      <td>Charged immediately at order time.[web:2][web:7]</td>
      <td>Yes, this is a real charge, not just a hold.[web:2][web:7]</td>
      <td>Payment is taken up front; watch out for long pre-order windows due to PayPal expiry rules.[web:2][web:4]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Store pickup / in-store style</td>
      <td>May see a small temp authorization before release.[web:6][web:8]</td>
      <td>Usually just a validity check on your card.[web:6][web:8]</td>
      <td>Typically when you pick up the item in store.[web:6]</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

TL;DR

  • Regular card pre-orders: not charged when you place the order, only when the item ships/ready for pickup, with temporary holds before that.
  • PayPal pre-orders: charged immediately.
  • Multiple “ghost” charges you see beforehand are usually just short-lived authorizations, not repeated billing.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.