Help!! Payment Taken From Bank Account Without Authorisation!

sem87

hi, i'm looking for any advice urgently that anyone has on the following situation...

i purchased an item from someone (trading as a business) and when coming to pay for the items, they charged me incorrectly (over £200 less that what i should be paying. I didn't realise this until 2 days later when I no longer had the money in my account to pay for this. They have since sent me a letter advising that if i didn't pay them within a week, they would take me to court. I didn't actually receive this until the day they said was the last I could pay. The letter was recorded delivery but got lost in the post!! The problem with the letter is they are saying I owe more than what they gave me in writing on the day, almost £50 more! I haven't actually signed anything.

I wrote back to them advising that as I no longer had the money to pay for this, I was offering to pay half this month and half next month which I thought was quite reasonable considering this was their error.

Obviously, i thought I was too late so was waiting for my next letter...until today! Still no further letter or phone call but went into my online banking to see that they had taken the outstanding balance (the higher amount).

I would like some advice as to where I stand with this as obviously I authorised the first amount that they charged wrong as I paid by chip and pin but I did not authorise this large payment they have just taken.

Are they able to take this money from my account with me not signing or putting my pin in again??

This has made me go over my overdraft and I now have no money for a week.

Urgent help needed.

Thanks

amersall

how much over the original amount have they charged you? if you have the original reciept and they have overcharged you i would contact them again and ask them to refund the difference. failing that i would contact cab for some advice. sorry i cannot be of more help but i am sure someone will come on who can help you further, if you are being charged by your bank for going over your limit phone them and let them know what has happened they may be able to help as you only used your card for a certain amount originally,

sem87

thanks amersall.

the person who i purcashed from is not very approachable at all. I am going to contact strading standards/cab tomorrow but i am a little impatient for obvious reasons!

I contacted my bank but they say they cannot do anything and I will have to stay without money.

The transaction is not yet showing on my account but the money has gone out. I had to call barclays to find out what this was for.

peachyprice

So you knew underpaid in the first place, and 2 days later you could no longer afford the whole price? What happened to the £200 they undercharged you? You should have put this to one side for when they asked for the rest of the payment.

If you could not afford the item you should have cancelled the order or returned the item.

sem87

I knew 2 days later but prior to that, wrongly assuming the money had gone out of my account, I paid extra off other bills. The item is non returnable and could not cancel the order as I had taken it on the day.

My question really is can they legally take this money from my account without giving authorisation?

jonesMUFCforever

How did you pay originally?
Was it by debit card?

If so they have the right to expect what it says on the receipt.
If they have taken more contact your bank to arrange a chargeback if it is for the correct amount then they have done nothing wrong.

sem87

Yes, it was by debit card.

They gave me a piece of paper detailing what i was buying and also how much for £175 yet they have charged me £215.

How can they take the outstanding without me authorising this?

jonesMUFCforever

sem87 wrote: »

How can they take the outstanding without me authorising this?

They can't.

sem87

i contacted barclays and they say it is possible

jonesMUFCforever

sem87 wrote: »

i contacted barclays and they say it is possible

If they told you this did you ask how and why?
Go back to them state catagorically that they have overcharged you.

Caroline73_2

How can they charge you £200 less on an item that should be £175?