A charge from UBER *TRIP, UBER *EATS or UBR PENDING on your statement

UBER *TRIP is a ride booked through Uber, and UBER *EATS is a delivery order. A line marked pending can be a temporary authorization hold that Uber says will never be charged.¹² Uber also says the charge may be a changed fare, a cancellation fee, a tip you added, or a ride taken by someone using your account or your card.¹

Pending: how long Uber says it takes

Uber’s help pages give three different answers to the same question, and we read all three:

• “Uber reverses the hold immediately after your trip ends. This normally takes 3-5 business days to reflect in your account.”²
• “All authorisation holds are cancelled within a few business days, some bank may take longer.”¹
• In a 2018 post: they are voided immediately but “may show as ‘pending’ until released by your bank. This may take several days and during this time you will not be able to access those funds.”³

None of the three gives a date by which you can call your bank and say it is overdue. Uber’s 2018 post sends you to your bank for a hold that is still showing.³ Uber says no hold is placed when you pay with Uber Cash.²

Uber says a hold can appear when you add a new payment method or have not used Uber for a while, and the 2018 post says the amounts are usually $1, $2, $5, or up to the fare.¹³

What it looks like on a real statement

The State of Delaware publishes every purchase its employees make on state cards, with the merchant name as the bank received it. When we counted on 6 October 2026, the two ride names UBER TRIP and UBER *TRIP together made 12,906 lines from 51 state departments and school districts. 134 of them are credits, adding up to -$2,783.62.⁴ The ledger drops some punctuation, so the star is not always where it is on your own statement.

Some “pending” lines posted as real charges

Uber says a hold “won’t ever be charged.”¹ In the state’s data, 30 lines named UBR PENDING.UBER.COM were charged between 21 and 31 March 2019, from 7 departments and school districts. 27 are whole-dollar amounts: $1 twice, $2 ten times, $3 eight times, $5 four times and $10 three times. The other three are $5.09, $6.80 and $7.64. Whole dollars of $1 to $5 match the amounts Uber’s 2018 post describes for holds.³⁴

One line of -$3.00 under the same name, from the State Treasurer’s office, is dated 16 May 2019. The ledger does not say which charge it reversed, and the office also has $3.00 charges under that name on 26, 27 and 29 March. The data does not say why any of these lines posted or whether the cardholder lost the money in the end. It shows that a line with the word pending in it can be an entry on a statement, and that at least one credit came 56 days after the first.⁴

The name changed in August 2024

Until 2024, almost every ride line in the data reads UBER TRIP. The version with a star, UBER *TRIP, is rare before that: 1 line in 2019, 1 in 2022 and 3 in 2023, then 1,086 in 2024. In the seven days to 20 August 2024, 108 of 112 ride lines are the old form; in the seven days from 21 August, all 85 are the new one. The delivery name changes the same day: UBER EATS ends 20 August 2024 and UBER *EATS starts 21 August 2024.⁴

Because both ride and delivery change on the same day, it may be how the state’s file or the bank records the name rather than a change Uber announced. We have found nothing from Uber that explains it. If your older statement says UBER TRIP and your newer one says UBER *TRIP, the data suggests it is the same kind of charge.

How to find it and stop it

1. Look for a pending hold first If the line says pending and you took or ordered something recently, or added a new card, it may be a hold. Uber says to wait 3 to 5 business days.²
2. Check your trip and order history Uber says an unfamiliar line can be an updated fare, a cancellation fee or a tip you added. Check the other accounts that use your card too.¹
3. Ask the people who use your card Uber says unrecognized charges can often be tied to a friend, co-worker or family member who is using your account, or your card on a different account.¹
4. Report it to Uber Uber’s form asks for the amount and date of up to two charges, a screenshot that shows your name, your bank’s name and the date, the first 6 and last 4 digits of the card and its expiry date, and an email address that has to confirm a message before anyone looks at the case.¹ The page does not say how long a reply takes.
5. If it is not any of these, go to your bank Ask your bank to dispute the charge and ask what its deadline is. It depends on the bank, the card network and the reason.

Is this a scam?

The names are real: Uber’s own pages describe pending holds and unrecognized charges, and the Delaware data alone has more than twelve thousand ordinary ride lines.¹⁴ A real name does not make every charge yours. If the amount is in no trip history of yours, it may be someone else using your card. That is a question for your bank.

Why this page is on a site about held money

This site records payment companies that hold back money that belongs to someone else. Uber is not in the incident record; the pending hold is the part of this page that is closest to it, because it is money you cannot spend while you wait. Another ride name is LYFT *RIDE, and other food orders show up as DD *DOORDASH and IC* INSTACART. Other lines are in the table of statement names.

Sources

1. Uber Help, "My account has an unrecognized charge": pending charges, friends and family, updated fares, cancellation fees, the report form and what it asks for. help.uber.com. Read on 6 October 2026. Archived copy of 6 October 2026.
2. Uber Help, "Temporary authorization holds": the hold, Uber Cash, 3 to 5 business days. help.uber.com. Read on 6 October 2026. Archived copy of 6 October 2026.
3. Uber, "Authorisation holds – what they are and why we use them", 4 October 2018 (Australian site): the amounts and “several days”. uber.com. Read on 6 October 2026. Archived copy of 6 October 2026.
4. State of Delaware Open Data, State Employee Credit Card Transactions, fields "merchant", "trans_dt", "dept_name" and "merchandise_amt". Lines named UBR PENDING; the others by the same query on each exact name. Queried and counted on 6 October 2026.