It's been a while since I worked for an EMV vendor and I didn't remember that very clearly, but sometimes transactions are handled entirely offline. It depends on what card you have and where you're shopping (or, more specifically, your card issuer and the transaction acquirer, who determines the settings on the pinpad).

The card and the pinpad together make a decision about whether to send the transaction online or keep it offline and this decision may involve the connection speed of the device and the amount of money you spend.

So, in some cases you might check your account and notice that the money has not been taken out yet. Or you might not even check because the amount you spent was very low.

Obviously, if the connection speed is high enough there's no point in staying offline, so you'll always see your balance changing pretty much instantly. But, like I say, this depends on where you're shopping, what you're buying and what card you're using.

> but sometimes transactions are handled entirely offline

It depends. Some readers are set to accept offline payments for NFC for sure. Reason being that they only sell small items (lunch boxes and stuff) and an offline payment is instant. However in most places you can only do three offline payments before an online payment is forced.