Bank holding funds despite transaction being declined!

jinx19892000

Heyyy

Last Monday, 12/04/10, I tried to purchase something off an American website using my card. It kept being declined and after four attempts os so I realised that it was because I was using a visa electron card.

I then went to check my Halifax account to find that the money has disapperred from my account. After getting in touch with the company, they explained that banks hold the funds while the transaction is pending but when no charge is made, the funds will be released back to me. A week later and nothing has happened.

I just called halifax's help centre and got put through to an advisor that had the personality of a brick and he didn't help me at all. He just said that it takes a few days but wasn't any more specific than that!

I was just wondering if anyone else had this problem and how long it took for the funds to be released?

thank yous :)x

Madison

This happened to me in Tesco's on Good Friday - problem must have been with their machine. The girl on the till put the transaction through three times and said it was declined on each occasion. I'd been using my Visa debit card elsewhere and knew there were sufficient funds in my account. I went outside and drew cash from an ATM immediately afterwards and checked that my account was in credit. The three void transactions were offset against my available balance until last Wednesday - 7 working days after the error.

BorassicLint

I had this in Tesco's once. I asked for £5 cashback and she put it in the till as£50. I noticed the error before I entered my pin no. but the £50 still came out of my account. I think it took about 10 days for it to go back into my account. I think it's really bad that this can happen as you cannot access your own money through someone else's mistake. It's like when you want to get a refund on somehting, it always takes 3-4 days for the money to go back into your account but when buying the money comes out instantly. Someone somewhere must be earning out of it!

Madison

It also happens when you do an supermarket shop on-line. If they don't deliver everything on your order, the funds for the full amount are still held by your bank until the charge for the goods delivered goes through.

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

Yea, that's quite normal. It's part of how an an online transaction completes, its the stage called 'ring-fencing' Basically it's where the online payments server reserves and checks you have the balance available.

The site you were on probably auto-declines orders visa electron cards etc but this happens after the ring-fencing stage.

It usually takes 7 - 10 days.

I had it happen to me while paying for a holiday online! Meant I wasn't able to book it properly until the money showed back up a week later.