Can anyone give me some advice please???

juicyjulie

I dont know if this is the right place to post this but maybe someone could move it for me if its not. Last November i reserved and paid for tickets online with Vue cinemas. I realised after a few weeks that they had never actually taken the money off my card. Yesterday when i checked my bank statement they have finally taken the money, whilst i am not arguing that i owed them the money, i personally think that 4 months later without explanation to take the money is unreasonable, does anyone know if there is a time limit that companies have to take the money, or if they are just allowed to take it if and when they realise their mistake? I would be grateful if anyone has any thoughts on the matter.:o

dzug1

Legally the time limit is 6 years I believe. The card companies may impose shorter deadlines.

It may not be Vue cinemas at all - it could be your bank correcting an error that occurred at the time.

Rustvaar

When I worked in a Bank call centre I was told to inform concerned customers that in some cases they could expect to see debits occur up to six months later when using their card. Most of them seemed very shocked by the idea - Personally can't see why there's a big fuss but then I don't spend money I don't have.

As dzug1 has said, card companies may impose shorter deadlines but overall it's viewed as a courtesy for them to remove it near the transaction because as far I'm aware they could just wait six months if they really want to.

Hopefully we get some clarification on the exact length of time.

hieveryone

Imagine if every retailer took 6 months to process a card transaction - we'd all be up !!!!!! creek and there's no way you can say you would be able to keep track of every single transaction without getting a little muddled - your bank account would be all over the place. In this day and age with the technology we have available, card transactions should all be instant.

DaisyFlower

They have upto 6 years to apply for the payment.

You knew they hadnt taken payment and didnt query it so its a little unfair to moan why they eventually do take it.

Rustvaar

hieveryone wrote: »

Imagine if every retailer took 6 months to process a card transaction - we'd all be up !!!!!! creek and there's no way you can say you would be able to keep track of every single transaction without getting a little muddled - your bank account would be all over the place. In this day and age with the technology we have available, card transactions should all be instant.

The key phrase here is "should all be instant."

I don't disagree that they should be instant but it is pretty much at the discretion of the company accepting payment by the looks of it.

juicyjulie

Thanks to everyone for replying, as i said in my initial post i am not querying the fact that i owed them the money but i assumed that the money would come out within at the most a week, it has taken me years of being in debt to get to the point where i can budget for everything and this was budgeted for 4 months ago not now, i have never had a payment take so long to come out and had never realised that they could take so long to take the money hence the post asking for advice, obviously now if it happens again i will be aware, i had just always thought that paying with switch was instant.