Checking a debit card works

bobblebob

I just rang my bank to ask why a £2.50 payment was taken from my account, then credited back. Apparently Halifax Secure takes small payments to make sure its working ok, then gives you it back.

Do other companies ever do this? Ive recently got a new debit card and changed my details with all the sites i buy from. An hour or so later i noticed a £1 transaction was taken from my account (i cant see it yet, its still pending payment and my bank cant check who its from until the morning when their computer updates).

Just wondering as i changed my card details, are they likely to test my card in this way? I use WillHill betting site so they may have done

calibrax

bobblebob wrote: »

I just rang my bank to ask why a £2.50 payment was taken from my account, then credited back. Apparently Halifax Secure takes small payments to make sure its working ok, then gives you it back.

Do other companies ever do this? Ive recently got a new debit card and changed my details with all the sites i buy from. An hour or so later i noticed a £1 transaction was taken from my account (i cant see it yet, its still pending payment and my bank cant check who its from until the morning when their computer updates).

Just wondering as i changed my card details, are they likely to test my card in this way? I use WillHill betting site so they may have done

This is pretty common with both credit and debit cards. I find that whenever I use Tesco online shopping, a £2 debit appears in my credit card's pending transactions, but when the actual payment hits the card, the £2 debit goes (i.e. it never becomes a permanent transaction, it just vanishes from status "pending")

Seen this happen with my BoS debit card, my Tesco CC and my Cashplus Prepaid CC.

bobblebob

play.com do it too when you update your bank details. Just had to ring the bank asking why a £1 payment is pending. Its from them

VIPMC

Its what you call as security authentication made by companies before drafting out payments from your card. Before it was just an authorization in which the money is set aside from your card but its not drafted. The downside the funds are released and you can already use it within 24 hours apparently it did not work for companies because by the time that they are going to draft the money it was used by the card holder especially those people who don't monitor their finances. So they came up with the idea of pulling out funds and doing a cashback especially for gas and utilities wherein most POS you don't have to enter the card and just swipe it.

coolesticeking

What they don't tell people is when they open a new account, and get the debit card and have no overdraft and complete VbyV or MSC.

Takes them overdrawn if they have no funds!

Would be a lot better if they just told people about this on the screen when they sign up.

Least people could ensure they do have enough funds and to expect a pre-auth but will be removed in x amount of days.