Account empty, payday monday, can I use a VISA debit today?

thedarxide

Hi,

I get paid monday, but there's only £7 left in my account and need food. If I use a VISA debit, which I believe doesn't do a balance check at point of purchase, can I safely buy food assuming that the transaction won't go through until Monday anyway?

Ta.

PROLIANT

thedarxide wrote: »

Hi,

I get paid monday, but there's only £7 left in my account and need food. If I use a VISA debit, which I believe doesn't do a balance check at point of purchase, can I safely buy food assuming that the transaction won't go through until Monday anyway?

Ta.

Keep the transaction under £10 each time, this should not trigger an auth.

msgnomey

Whilst in the short term this is not too much of a problem it can be a slippery slope, some time ago i found out that the coop would cash a personal cheque and it would take 3 days to be banked, trouble is I was cashing a cheque 3 days later to cover the one I cashed before IYSWIM good luck on getting things sorted out xx

thedarxide

It's not going to end up slipping, pay day is actually today, and my budget runs from today, but the money never shows until monday Two months in a row the 20th has been a Saturday!!

All the advice I've found says that a balance check is "necessarily" done. TBH, I'm not worried about charges, it's the embarrasment of getting to the till and having the transaction refused.

thedarxide

And of course, no one takes a cheque anymore... :mad:

Keith

You should speak to your boss, if your payday falls on a Saturday surely you should be paid on Friday?

MFWannabe

You say you have £7 left in your account. Can you not just get what you absolutely need to last until Monday i.e milk, bread. Then do a proper shop on Monday when you know your money is in you account? At least that way you won't have to worry about your card being declined at the till today if you don't go over £7. Plus you won't run the risk of charges for going overdrawn

LeeSouthEast

Buy £6.99's worth of food? I can feed myself on that for a week, at a push. I'm sure with a bit of OS-creativity you can manage a day and a half

thedarxide

Myself, yes.

Myself, my wife, my son, the cats, no

never-in-doubt

Who do you bank with? Some banks will allow weird things - like HSBC will let you withdraw upto a certain amount on top of any overdraft etc for emergencies.... Mine is £400 over any limit on each account.

But you're not meant to know this - I only seen it by chance on screen.

Natwest do similar, you can spend £10-£20 extra....

Obviously you may get charged, but I mean these are the bits you can spend prior to them declining it.

All supermarkets etc now do authorise the card, even if only for £1 - but most now (post switch era) will request full authorisation. So it may well be declined.

firesidemaid

i don't know whether anyone can tell you for sure on here whether you will be ok or not.

if my wages are due on a weekend, then we always get paid on the friday - presumably your money will not be applied until monday?

my first thought too, was just to spend the £7 until monday - ?any more change, vouchers or clubcard/nectar points available to use also.

if you pop over to the old-style board and let them know what's in your cupboards, freezer etc they would be able to give you loads of recipes/ideas to make the most of what you've got.

a couple of pouches of catfood or a box of cheap biscs, toast for breakfast, sarnies or h/m soup with bread for lunch and pasta, rice or potato dishes for tea.