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Card payment in limbo? Has this happened to you?
ivan_the_not-so-terrible
Posts: 43 Forumite
Hi,
I checked my account before going to Tesco's shopping last night, and had an available balance of £200. The shopping came to £117 and I put my A&L debit card into the checkout reader as usual (a manned checkout, not one of those annoying scan yourself ones). The reader said "enter pin", then "remove card"; but as I did so, the cashier said I'd removed it too quick. So we started over. This time it said payment declined. We tried a couple of times but no joy. I insisted I had enough, so she put the transaction on hold and sent me to customer services. I said that I could withdraw some cash from another account, but couldn't understand what had happened and wanted to check my account first. So I left Mrs standing there like a lemon whilst I checked. Aha, exactly £83 available. I withdrew the money from another account but wanted to cover myself first, so called A&L phone bank. They confirmed the payment to Tesco's of £117 was the last transaction. I passed the phone to the costomer services girl who'd insisted the payment had been declined! Hmmmmm! She still wouldn't have it despite talking to the phone bank man. So, she called for a senior customer services manager, who said it sometimes happens. It shows on their system as declined, but on the banks as pending? She was much more clued up and stored the transaction on their system, and took cash payment promising a refund if I bought in a statement showing the payment had been made by card. Unfortunately I'm now in limbo, as A&L take ages to show transactions, but the available balance still just shows £83 ... so the £117 is for the moment "missing". I'm also £117 short in the account that my rent comes out of on the 6th! I'd forgotten the Bank holiday weekend, so I'm worried now that the shortfall won't be made up in time!
So questions ....
1. Where would have I stood if I'd just payed cash afterwards and the card payment had later gone through? I'd have payed twice, but how would I prove it?
2. How do I stand now if the card payment does go through as I think it will. Tesco's say they will pay me back, but will it be the cash or card repayment? I need the money ASAP!
3. Can I make any sort of claim for the inconvenience? It took nearly 45 mins to resolve, and we felt like social deviants whilst it was happening (esp Mrs who ws stood there with the shopping and a very bored eight year old!).
4. How safe are card payments with debit cards when things go wrong?
Thanks, Ivan
I checked my account before going to Tesco's shopping last night, and had an available balance of £200. The shopping came to £117 and I put my A&L debit card into the checkout reader as usual (a manned checkout, not one of those annoying scan yourself ones). The reader said "enter pin", then "remove card"; but as I did so, the cashier said I'd removed it too quick. So we started over. This time it said payment declined. We tried a couple of times but no joy. I insisted I had enough, so she put the transaction on hold and sent me to customer services. I said that I could withdraw some cash from another account, but couldn't understand what had happened and wanted to check my account first. So I left Mrs standing there like a lemon whilst I checked. Aha, exactly £83 available. I withdrew the money from another account but wanted to cover myself first, so called A&L phone bank. They confirmed the payment to Tesco's of £117 was the last transaction. I passed the phone to the costomer services girl who'd insisted the payment had been declined! Hmmmmm! She still wouldn't have it despite talking to the phone bank man. So, she called for a senior customer services manager, who said it sometimes happens. It shows on their system as declined, but on the banks as pending? She was much more clued up and stored the transaction on their system, and took cash payment promising a refund if I bought in a statement showing the payment had been made by card. Unfortunately I'm now in limbo, as A&L take ages to show transactions, but the available balance still just shows £83 ... so the £117 is for the moment "missing". I'm also £117 short in the account that my rent comes out of on the 6th! I'd forgotten the Bank holiday weekend, so I'm worried now that the shortfall won't be made up in time!
So questions ....
1. Where would have I stood if I'd just payed cash afterwards and the card payment had later gone through? I'd have payed twice, but how would I prove it?
2. How do I stand now if the card payment does go through as I think it will. Tesco's say they will pay me back, but will it be the cash or card repayment? I need the money ASAP!
3. Can I make any sort of claim for the inconvenience? It took nearly 45 mins to resolve, and we felt like social deviants whilst it was happening (esp Mrs who ws stood there with the shopping and a very bored eight year old!).
4. How safe are card payments with debit cards when things go wrong?
Thanks, Ivan
0
Comments
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Chances are, it's just an authorisation on your account. This means that Tesco will not actually claim the money - and so you'll never see it actually leave your account.
What will happen, is that the £117 will be pending on your account for about 5 working days, when it will drop off, never to be seen again.
However ... this leaves you with a lower available balance than you should have for the next 5 working days.
To remove this earlier, you can request that Tesco send a fax to A&L requesting that the authorisation is removed. Your available balance should then increase by £117 straight away.0 -
The money really is floating around somewhere in the ether! It still show's nothing on my account other than a difference in balance and available funds. I spoke to A&L again and they say that it's showing at their end as "pending". If Tesco's claim it, it will show on Tuesday, if they don't, it will remain as pending for another 10 days!!! There is no way to speed the process, so unless Tesco's claim it (which I guess they won't now as I payed for the transaction with cash) I'm snookered! I'm now short of £117 for my rent, so will have to beg, borrow or steal it from elswhere, or accept that it will be declined (plus costs). If I'd known, I'd have left the shopping, but it was embarrassing at the time, and you just want to pay, rather than look like a pauper.
The "system" is ridiculous! £117 in limbo for 10 days is bad enough, but because of the BH it will be 14 days!
Having experienced this, I'm likely to be very wary of paying by card near rent time in future. The only safe way seems to be to withdraw the cash and pay that way!
Ivan0 -
Try asking A&L to give you a temporary overdraft facility to cover the potential shortfall0
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Its is one of those things with payment card systems, if the chain of events breaks the authorisation does get wiped. The retailer can do it by calling the aquirer they use, authorisations are easy to cancel. But when it's a large retailer it would be rare for the branch staff to be able (or even know) to do it. The accounts office would be the place to start.
The payemtn will drop off after 10 days (not working) or less if a transaction get cleared down or system purged. The authorisation system was developed for credit cards and really doesn't suit debit cards at all but it does work well normally. With chip and PIN it was always a bolt on system that if it gets interupted it can leave the authorisation in place as the card has not confirmed the transaction code before being removed, its a few seperate processes for one outcome, therefore when it goes wrong it can cause issues.These are my thoughts and no one else's, so like any public forum advice - check it out before entering into contracts or spending your hard earned cash!
I don't know everything, however I do try to point people in the right direction but at the end of the day you can only ever help yourself!0 -
Well A&L won't give me a temp increase in overdraft or even discuss it! Not enough going into and out of my account to raaise the O/D from it's present £100. No if's, but's, or considerations .... Machine says "NO"
Perfect account, never gone over my overdraft and put about £1000 through it each month. Faceless banking at it's worst. I'm thinking I'll change to another when my money re-appears!
Ivan0 -
Same thing happened to me at ASDA. I removed the card too quick. £80 in limbo. However it vanished after 3 working days. I'm with LTSB.I spent 25 years in the mobile industry, from 1994 to 2019. Worked for indies as well as the big networks, in their stores also in contact centres. I also hold a degree in telecoms engineering so I like to think I know what I’m talking about 😂0
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Something going on with Tesco this weekend - has happened the other way around for me though. Spent £60 on Friday & it still hasn't come out.0
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Something going on with Tesco this weekend - has happened the other way around for me though. Spent £60 on Friday & it still hasn't come out.
It will though! lol .... Never works the other way round
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ivan_the_not-so-terrible wrote: »It will though! lol .... Never works the other way round
Oh I know lol!!!:rotfl:0
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