ether.fi Cash bounced a $1,400 Apple order twice, then took it as two $700s

ether.fi Cash bounced a $1,400 order on Apple's site last night. Vault had well over that in LiquidUSD, Direct Pay mode, nothing pending.

Second attempt failed too. Split it into two charges of seven hundred out of curiosity and both went through immediately, same card, same session, four minutes apart.

So there is a ceiling somewhere that is not documented as a ceiling. Anyone know where it actually sits, and whether it is per authorisation or per window?

were you in direct pay or borrow the first time. genuinely check, it switches on you

Direct Pay both times. I looked before I posted.

The design is what is biting you rather than a published limit.

Assets sit in the Safe until the moment of authorisation, and the release is a real operation that has to complete inside the window the network gives the authorisation. Small amounts clear inside that window comfortably. Larger single releases are more likely to run past it, and when they do the authorisation fails rather than queuing — which is why your two sevens worked and your fourteen did not, four minutes apart, with nothing else changed.

So it behaves like a ceiling and is really a timeout. Practical version: for anything four figures, either split it or move the amount into the spendable balance before you check out rather than leaving it to be released at the swipe.

Borrow Mode has its own separate line and I would not use it to solve this — you would be adding liquidation risk to buy a laptop.

Timeout rather than limit is a strong claim. What would distinguish them from outside?

Variance. A hard limit declines the same amount every time; a timeout does not. If he retries fourteen hundred a few times and it sometimes clears, it is the second one.

Ran it. Six attempts at $1,400 across four days, same vault, same merchant.

Three approved, three declined. So it is not a ceiling — hana_v is right, it is a race and I was reading the losses as a rule.

Pre-funding the spendable balance the day before has worked every time since, five for five. Marking this answered because that is the actual fix even if the underlying thing is ugly.

A payment rail whose success depends on a race you cannot observe is a payment rail you should not be standing at a till with. Fine for a website. Not fine for anything you would be embarrassed to have decline in front of someone.

the vault only releasing at the swipe is still so cool though