Halifax & Tesco

clarew76

Yesterday, after transferring some money into my current account I went to buy some diesel (from Esso if you're interested) and was shocked to have my card declined - fortunately I had cash to pay for it also but I was really worried I'd had my card hacked or something. When arriving at work I checked my Bank website and to my horror £67.03 had gone out from Tesco (racking my brains I knew I hadn't spent that amount in the last couple of weeks), I rang Halifax who to be honest were really helpful and struggled to find the transaction ....... because it was for a purchase I made on 24 October 2009!!! A mere 7 and a half weeks ago...... fortunately I have an Easycash account so I don't get charges for being overdrawn

My question is ...... is there a timescale where shops have to take the money from your account?? As 7.5 weeks seems a bit drawn out to me .... especially this time of year, 4 days off payday!!

And yes, when I finally get through to Tesco Customer Services I shall be asking them what they plan on doing to keep me shopping at their store with my Debit Card!!

skinny-on-the-inside

Well to be honest card transactions can go off at any time normally within an 8 week period and it's nobody's falt but yours that you don't monitor your account and your spending.
Did you not think to question it 7weeks ago when the payment didn't debit? Or did you think tesco's were giving you a freebie?

Extant

They have, realistically, six years to collect. There's no limit and they've done nothing wrong.

Did you not realize you had £67.03 more than you thought? Don't you check your statement?

clarew76

I was asking for advice, not to get ripped into for not monitoring my bank account. Halifax said they had 15 days to take the money out.

noh

Really you have had the benefit of the £67.03 for 7.5 weeks longer than you normally would have.

For some reason it was collected later than it normally would have been but you spent it and you owe the money.

The only advice that can be given is to keep a closer watch on your expenditure and your bank balance.

HannahIOW

OH had the same thing happen to him this week. Had £214 taken out for something purchased back in September. Just one of those things really

onlypaddy

better account management needed

savagej

I would ignore the above, some people have nothing better to do than stick up for large organisations and place blame for everything on an individual when the facts are not known.

This is how it works:

Although you have spent the money in this situation as long as the card was not Maestro or SOLO (edit: I think I might be wrong on that bit, I was thinking more about company's going bust but in this case it is a processing error), you can ask for a chargeback.

The retailer has an agreement with the bank. The retailer in this case Tesco asked for authorisation (this only applies were they did and not if the value was below a floor limit) to take money from your account and it was accepted, it is "earmarked" because your bank had agreed to pay it out.

However, this authorisation drops off in less than 7 days with Visa and 30 days with Mastercard, as that is the time scale in which the retailer has to file the transaction and take the money under Visa and Mastercard Rules. After that point it is the retailer who is in default of their contract with the bank they use to process their card transactions. Technically any request for a chargeback would be successful, so that would reverse the situation and you would not have received charges.

Your bank did not take off the "earmark" for the good of their health, they did it because they were no longer contractually obliged to pay out the money and under no circumstance is charges for this acceptable (the problem here is front line bank staff dont know this, or will be told to tell you otherwise, but if you push and dispute the matter they will have no choice but to raise a chargeback).

The issue with the 6 year rule is only if they can find you and take you to court. But they would have to ask nicely for the money first as it was their error not yours. As this was an on-line (I have copied this post and it has been for some and not for others) issue they would have your name and address though but I am sure such a large company might write it off than go to the hassle of chasing you for it.

onlypaddy

savagej wrote: »

I would ignore the above, some people have nothing better to do than stick up for large organisations and place blame for everything on an individual when the facts are not known.

This is how it works:

Although you have spent the money in this situation as long as the card was not Maestro or SOLO (edit: I think I might be wrong on that bit, I was thinking more about company's going bust but in this case it is a processing error), you can ask for a chargeback.

The retailer has an agreement with the bank. The retailer in this case Tesco asked for authorisation (this only applies were they did and not if the value was below a floor limit) to take money from your account and it was accepted, it is "earmarked" because your bank had agreed to pay it out.

However, this authorisation drops off in less than 7 days with Visa and 30 days with Mastercard, as that is the time scale in which the retailer has to file the transaction and take the money under Visa and Mastercard Rules. After that point it is the retailer who is in default of their contract with the bank they use to process their card transactions. Technically any request for a chargeback would be successful, so that would reverse the situation and you would not have received charges.

Your bank did not take off the "earmark" for the good of their health, they did it because they were no longer contractually obliged to pay out the money and under no circumstance is charges for this acceptable (the problem here is front line bank staff dont know this, or will be told to tell you otherwise, but if you push and dispute the matter they will have no choice but to raise a chargeback).

The issue with the 6 year rule is only if they can find you and take you to court. But they would have to ask nicely for the money first as it was their error not yours. As this was an on-line (I have copied this post and it has been for some and not for others) issue they would have your name and address though but I am sure such a large company might write it off than go to the hassle of chasing you for it.

Sorry, but I would be more inclined to ignore you! Most of what you have said is wrong.

The 6 year rule is a rule - they dont have to take you to court. If they dont claim after 6 months then they have to ask for permission from the bank as opposed to just putting it through, but as long as its within 6 years then technically they dont have to tell you diddly-squat. Chargeback is only used when you haven't authorised the transaction and the company is refusing to issue a refund. as OP spent it in tesco, he definitely gave authorisation so the bank will not carry this out.

i'm not sticking up for banks, i hate them frankly. moneygrabbing b*stards, but its an evil we have to live with.

but still, its not their responsibility to manage your money for you.

a basic rule of good account management is: only spend money once!

the facts can only boil down to a combination of two things - either the OP assumed that after the 7 day expiry period when the 'authorisation' dropped off that tesco wouldn't be coming to get it, and/or OP simply doesnt check their account and didnt register that it hadnt come of the balance.

either way, better account management is needed!

savagej

I would respectfully disagree and if you like I can place links to the Visa and Mastercard processing systems under which the specified times scales for transaction reconciliation are laid out.

If these rules are not followed then the processing bank is in breach of the rules and is liable to have a chargeback against them accepted.

Do you have a merchant services account, if so can you please back up what are saying about the 6 months (with details of the terms and condition of the account) and not within the 4 days Visa and 30 days Mastercard rule. If you dont have a merchant account I shall happily direct you also to the T&C's of those and show that under the card scheme processing rules a chargeback would be successful.

savagej

I also beleive that someone from Tesco will be along soon to explain this and offer to repay charges as hunderd of thousands of transactions must have gotten missed on 24 October.