Is there a huge delay between purchasing game time and it being made active?

[Jeeqbit]

There is only a delay when an expansion is not released yet and you pre-order it. Since that's not the case, there should be no delay (or not a significant one).

Once you purchase the game or an expansion, the retailer sends you an email with a code which you enter via the mog station. The retailer is not always Square Enix and the Square Enix store is technically a separate website/retailer, as confusing as that is.

Banking apps don't always ask for approval, even though they do pretty often.

It should be noted that if a transaction fails, it can still appear that money was withdrawn from the bank temporarily, but it is returned within a few days when the bank "clears" it. This is a small test to see if there is any money in the account in the first place. I've not seen this happen on most websites, but have once or twice and one of them was SE (because I had to contact them for clarification).

Since you said money wasn't withdrawn, I would guess that the transaction didn't go through, but I would suggest checking your email to see if there is a game code + Dawntrail code. If you use Steam, it's in your Properties then CD Keys section and it may work differently in the Playstation or Xbox stores.

Speaking of that, you purchase the expansions separately for each platform (PC, Steam, Playstation, Xbox) and they are not compatible with eachother.