Please don't let me starve!!!!!!!!!!!

Abby27

My fiance and I went to morrocco in May and withdrew money from ATM machines - we made 7 withdrawals in all and checked our account online when we got home that they all transactions had come out. All was well and good, no problems 3 months ago. Today I find that some bank in Morrocco has re-issued all these transactions (that we have already paid for) - my bank has authorised these requests and my account has been cleared out and I am now in an unplanned overdraft of £200. Initially the bank tried to tell us that some transactions made abroad can take up to 6 months - 6 years to be processed, then we pushed further and my very angry fiance had it confirmed with the "desputes dept" that yes these particular transactions are duplicates of the old ones from May and we will be entitled to get the money bank, once they send the forms out etc. I understand this, and that I will be charged for the unplanned overdraft but I will be able to claim it back. What amazes me is that my bank does not have any process/policy: a)to help me in this dire moment of need b) to prevent this happening at all! Apparently the transaction/authorisation references are specific for each ATM withdrawal - thats how they found out they were duplicates, when we asked the fraud dept to look into it.
I choose to have one bank account which I share with my partner, I have bad credit and cannot get an overdraft so we don't have one and we normally don't need one. But now when it has been proven and accepted that the money I entrust to the bank has been taken from me unlawfully, they have admitted they cannot help! They will not give us an overdraft to sub us until payday which is 10 days away (because of my bad credit), and they cannot credit my account with the amount that has been taken despite admitting they know where the money has gone. Also, despite us telling the bank employee that we have not been eligable for overdrafts (we've tried in the past) the kind lady on the end of the telephone tried twice anyway and we were refused twice - and now they tell us that this will go against our credit rating with the bank!
Now thankfully my mum has managed to sub me some ££ - but what if I had no family - had bad credit - and someone had cleared my account and i wasn't getting paid for another 3 weeks! Surely if it has been accepted and confirmed by the bank that your money has been stolen from you then they should be able help!? Surely they won't let you starve!!! And another thing where is this information (although irrelevant in this case) that transactions can take up to 6 months and in some cases 6 years to be processed from abroad!? I have scoured the banks website and our account information and cannot find any such notice anywhere! And the last thing, how did this happen! Didn't it flag up that these particular transactions/withdrawals, with those specific "codes" were made in May also -this was not a person who had stolen my identity or cards - this was another bank taking money I'd already paid, and LloydsTsb just gave it to them! What guarantee do I have this won't happen again!!!!!!!!!!????

VfM4meplse

Interestingly enough something similar happened to me - I used a credit card in India, exactly 12 months later the transactions were duplicated but I caught this almost immediately (cc company couldn't work out why I appeared to be in two continents on the same day!).

Be very wary when using ATMs / cards abroad as who can be sure of local security?