Think of a car rental desk in Abidjan. The customer drives off for three days and nobody knows the final bill yet, because fuel, a late return or a scratch can all change it. Charging a large deposit and refunding most of it later annoys everyone and ties up the customer's money.
A card hold is simpler. The customer confirms their card and an amount is blocked on it, while your balance stays exactly where it was. When the car comes back, you capture the part you keep, whether that is all of it or less, and the rest is released. If there is nothing to keep, you release the whole hold, and either way you capture only once.
Holds work on Visa and Mastercard. Wave and MTN cannot block money this way, so a deposit taken on mobile money is still a payment that you refund later. Some debit cards refuse a hold or take the money straight away, which is why international cards remain the reliable case.
A hold does not last forever. It expires after a set period, the customer's bank can release it sooner, and the transaction shows when the block ends, so plan to capture before that date. Holds also carry their own fee, separate from the card rate, and it is worth checking pricing before you build your deposits around them.
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