---
title: Payment queueing
slug: concepts/payments/instant-payments/payment-queuing
description: If a receiving bank is offline, Cross River queues instant payments until it’s back online, so you don’t need to resend them.
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-03-20T09:16:43.703Z
---

## Instant Payment queuing

Participating banks must be online to send and receive instant payments. Occasionally, a bank may be offline due to maintenance or technical issues. When this happens, Cross River queues instant payments until the bank is back online. This way you don't have to worry about resending a payment if the receiving bank (RDFI) is temporarily unavailable.

## How it works

Instant payment queuing follows a structured process based on timing and the receiving bank availability:

1. You submit a payment to Cross River.
   When you submit the payment, you can also set a queue expiration time to cancel the payment if the receiving bank remains offline.
2. If the receiving bank is offline, the payment is queued and you get a notification.
3. If the receiving bank is online, the payment proceeds immediately without being queued.

## Cancel a payment

You can [cancel](docId\:SwyRh0F0e40q1DOFZmuNr) a queued payment before it reaches its expiration.

## How long can a payment stay queued

If you don't set an expiration time, payments have a default queue expiration of **3 days**, after which the payment is cancelled.

## Set a custom queue expiration

You can set one or both of the following:

- A specific date and time
- An expiration time in seconds

If you provide both, the system prioritizes the **time in seconds** and ignores the date and time.

Set the custom queue expiration using our [originate a credit transfer](docId:727H0GkQerqHAFKEy67Uu) API.