Debit card payment not taken from bank account?

OnceUponADream

I hope I've plonked this in the right place!

A friend of mine used her debit card a number of months ago and the payment has still not left her account.

It was for a service rather than actual goods and she has the receipt stating payment had been received but clearly it hasn't as it's still in her account.

What should she do? I suggested contacting the company to inform them? She is more inclined to hang on to the money - earning interest as it's quite alot of money - until they relaise their mistake.

Any advice?

Pete*G_4

hold onto it, earning interest, but don't spend it unless they realise their mistake and claim it.

that's what I'd do anyway

OnceUponADream

Pete*G wrote: »

hold onto it, earning interest, but don't spend it unless they realise their mistake and claim it.

that's what I'd do anyway

I thought maybe if she contacted them they might not take the full amount due to her honesty:D.

I guess she was right about earning the interest until such times it is taken.

How long could it take until they realise their mistake - I suppose up to their year end when the books are done? I thought a sum of money would be noticed during month end calucations?

stclair

They can still claim the money upto until 6 months afterwards, possibly longer depending on the banks policy. So id be inclined to tell your friend to keep hold of the money just incase they debit there account out of the blue.

onlypaddy

i thought it was 6 years.....

stclair

onlypaddy wrote: »

i thought it was 6 years.....

It well could be it happened to me once and HSBC advised me 6 months.

But im sure different banks will have different polices.

McKneff

As far as I am aware from reading threads on the site its 6 years.

cottager

Yes, she must definitely hang on to the funds to pay. This situation can happen (though we've only ever come across it once) for completely unexpected and innocent reasons. This was our experience from 'the other side' of the transaction.

OH takes card payments through his small business, and there was an instance last year when two transactions close together on the same day appeared to go through perfectly fine. We had our slips for the approved transactions, and the customers obviously had theirs together with OH's receipted invoices, so everything seemed quite normal.

It wasn't till a few weeks later that we discovered the transactions hadn't in fact gone through, and unfortunately one of the customers wasn't a 'regular' who OH knew, so he wasn't able to trace and contact them to let them know, though he did manage to get hold of the other. We had to send copies of the transaction slips to the card-handling company to show they'd been approved at the time, and eventually they put the amounts through; but so far as the uncontactable customer was concerned it was clearly going to be very late and it turned out they must have forgotten about it or just thought as it hadn't gone through within a few days it never would.

Cue one very angry person turning up to complain bitterly it had made them overdrawn as they hadn't made any allowance for this or kept sufficient in their account to cover it. Very unpleasant experience, and OH obviously apologised and explained the circumstances, but at the end of the day it wasn't his fault and it certainly wasn't deliberate. As unfortunate as it was and as hard as it sounds, the service had been provided and the amount was legitimately due, and OH didn't do anything wrong by claiming it... it was still months within the 6-month validity period.

So it might be very rare, but it can happen for reasons you might not immediately think of.

^!£$&

similar thing happened to me on an rather inexpensive item I purchased on debit card from a major high st retailer, a year later I still haven't been charged!

elaina79

I have set up a spreadsheet where I record all my transactions. I go by this balance instead of what my bank says I have. That way I cannot spend the money twice.

pippitypip_2

About 8 years ago I bought a ring for about £90 in Tiffanys (silver), used my debit card, got all receipts etc.

Never got charged and had my current account with that bank closed this year!

Very lucky I know and a shame it has never happened to me since . Yes I just kept quiet about it but I did honestly expect it would just be debited later once they realised the mistake..

I have no clue how something like that can happen though.

I must stress though, if you've paid for something and the payment wasn't taken, you should always keep enough money to cover it. You've got the goods/ service and they're totally right to take it once the mistake is uncovered. I too thought they have 6 years..

pippitypip