[gamblor956]

I don't think it's gaslighting so much as it is him not understanding how transactions work.

There's the posting date, which is when the transaction appears on the statement. However, the details of the transaction, such as the amount or even whether the transaction should be cleared, have not been finalized, so they are still subject to change by the merchant. Paypal used to use this to authenticate bank accounts, and other merchants also use this to pre-authorize payment accounts (i.e., credit cards) or payments.

Then there's the clearing date, which occurs after the merchant finalizes the transaction. Legally, this is when the money actually leaves your account. Generally, the amount at clearing is the same as the amount at posting, however for restaurants, the amounts are usually different because the final amount includes the tip, if any.

[viraptor]

There's unfortunately no standard on which date is shown in the UI. I've used banks showing either one of those and also some that show both. You can sometimes also see both when downloading the transaction in some more structured file format.

It's useful to understand which one is being presented by default.