I paid but my order still says awaiting payment

An order shows Awaiting payment until the payment has actually settled, not from the moment you pressed pay. For most methods those are the same second; for some they are not.

How long should settlement take?

• Card, iDEAL and Bancontact — immediate. If the status has not moved within a minute, something did go wrong.
• SEPA direct debit and bank transfer — days, not minutes. The payment is in progress and the order waits for it.

Until settlement, the supplier does not see the order at all. This is deliberate: it stops a file being made for a payment that never arrives.

The checkout window closed before I finished

Then the payment was never started, and the order is correctly waiting. Open the order and start the checkout again — it is the same order, so you are not paying twice or losing the file you uploaded.

My bank says the money left my account

If the method was card or iDEAL and the money has left, but the order has not moved after a few minutes, the payment likely completed against a checkout that was abandoned before it returned to the portal. Do not pay again. Open a support ticket with the order reference and the date and amount your bank shows.

I was charged twice

You are not double-charged for one order — a settled payment marks the order paid, and a second attempt against an already-paid order is refused rather than taken. Two charges of the same amount usually means two orders were created. Check your Orders list for a duplicate; if there is only one order, contact support with both amounts and dates.

Can I switch to paying with credits instead?

Cancel the unpaid order and place it again — the payment method is chosen when the order is placed. An order that has never been paid can be cancelled from the order page at no cost.

Checkout shows a VAT notice instead of the payment step

That is not a payment failure — your supplier requires a confirmed VAT number before this sale can be invoiced, and yours is not confirmed yet. See vat-verification: the check runs automatically and buying unblocks on its own once the register answers.