Warning Asda/lloyds problems online

markanddebbie3

I am posting this as a warning of a ASDA home shopping charging policy that might cause poeple problems. I will try and explain what happened as clearly as possible

13th August - ordered shopping £62.48 before using e voucher
£52.48 after using evoucher

14th August - ASDA pre authorize my debit card for full amount not including the e-voucher discount. My usable funds in my bank account reduced by £62.48

15th August - shopping delivered and delivery note gave a total cost of £61.79 (the delivery note doesnt include evouchers)

16th August - In the my orders section of the website the order was complete and it stated that £51.79 had been charged to my account.

17th August - Transaction paid to ASDA for £51.79 appeared on my account ministatement. My available funds still appeared low so I checked with my bank and was told that £62.48 had been "earmarked" and as such wasnt available for use. Basically ASDA had charged the reduced price to my account, but had not cancelled the previously authorized £62.48
.
This didnt cause me too many problems as the bank told me to take in my delivery note and order confirmation as proof that the "earmarked2 transaction had been completed. I also didnt have any direct debits going out of the bank today. :T

:eek: I AM POSTING THIS AS A WARNING THAT THIS SITUATION COULD RESULT IN DIRECT DEBITS NOT BEING PAID OR PEOPLE GOING OVERDRAWN
:eek:
I dont know if this is a problem with ASDA's charging method or with my bank. I bank with LLOYDS and have noticed similar things happening when I pay for petrol with my debit cardat JET garages. The amont paid comes off my useable balance and when the transaction appears on my statment the funds are still earmarked for a couple of days and cannot be used

Something else tht concerned me is that this must be quite a common ocurrance if there is a procedure to rectify it.:o

martinbuckley

Surely a debit card works on the same principle as cash, so having the funds earmarked for whoever you have promised them to is correct.

kirkie_2

I have used Asda.com for many months now with no problems...If anything I always do quite well out of them as I get good substitutes and you get to know what to order at a low price, knowing it will be substituted for something of a better quality/value.

markanddebbie3

hi martin, yes i agree - a debit card does work on the same principle of cash, but do you earmark the cash amount twice? i don't think so. just to repeat that it could cause people some problems if limited funds were reserved for other direct debits. nobody would want to go overdrawn would they?

markanddebbie3

martinbuckley wrote:

Surely a debit card works on the same principle as cash, so having the funds earmarked for whoever you have promised them to is correct.

I suggest you re read the post properly before making any further comments. It states that the funds were preauthorized for full amount. Then I made the payment required following completion of the order, the payment for which appeared on my accout statement. But the funds that were prauthorized were still earmarked. In effect my usuable balance was reduced by around £114 for a £51.79
transaction.

I have no problems with funds being earmarked for a debit card transaction. the problem I have is with funds reamining earmarked when the transaction has been completed.

For example - lets use a full order of £50 and a value of £40 after andy evouchers just to make the maths a simple as possible

Date

---

action

---

balance

---

usuable balance
13th

---

place order

---

£150

---

£150
14th

---

order preauthorized----£150

---

£100
15th

---

Order delivered

---

£150

---

£100
17th---Order completed reduced--£110-earmarking for full--£60

---

reduced amount charged

---

amount not removed

---

---

to account and showing

---

from the account

---

---

on statement

---

As you can see from this example the effect on useable balance is that it is reduced by more than twice the actual cost of the shopping, and this couls screw up peoples budgets if direct debits are due out of the bank around the same time

markanddebbie3

kirkie wrote:

I have used Asda.com for many months now with no problems...If anything I always do quite well out of them as I get good substitutes and you get to know what to order at a low price, knowing it will be substituted for something of a better quality/value.

in the past I have had no problems - this was the first time I have shopped with them for about 5 months. I am beginning to think that it is problem with LLoyds not cancelling the earmarking. But if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone

BargainJunky

We had this problem when we bought a Ka. The garage earmarked their money but didnt take it for ages - as we had a problem with the Ka we were tempted to close the account before they had the chance but thought we might get in a bit of bother. It was only earmarked for a few days and then was showing as an available balance for a few days before they actually took it.

martinbuckley

markanddebbie3 wrote:

in the past I have had no problems - this was the first time I have shopped with them for about 5 months. I am beginning to think that it is problem with LLoyds not cancelling the earmarking. But if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone

Having just admitted that, it may have been an idea to post the subject title correctly, and I would have never offended you with my comment about debit cards as I dont bank with Lloyds and would have not even read it. I shop regularly with Asda and have never had a problem. I bank with Natwest and use my debit card in various outlets, and have never had this happen. As you say, sounds like a LloydsTSB problem. Maybe you could find out and let us know.

markanddebbie3

martinbuckley wrote:

Having just admitted that, it may have been an idea to post the subject title correctly, and I would have never offended you with my comment about debit cards as I dont bank with Lloyds and would have not even read it. I shop regularly with Asda and have never had a problem. I bank with Natwest and use my debit card in various outlets, and have never had this happen. As you say, sounds like a LloydsTSB problem. Maybe you could find out and let us know.

At the time of writing I thought it was a problem with ASDA charging methods. I still think that ASDA's method of charging caused thi. If they charged like Tesco then it wouldnt have happened. Tesco do the shop then charge the actual cost of shopping (including the discount vouchers used) when the driver leaves the depot. This means that the only funds earmarked are the actual cost of the shopping. There is no waiting around for ASDA ad the banking system to catch up with each other.

I do concede the point that I should have included Lloyds in the thread title and will edit it now.

I would also point out that ASDA have changed their charging policy since I shopped on line in the past, I dont think they did evouchers then or it was a different system and I did say in my original post that I wasnt sure if it was a problem with ASDA or my Bank.

I will start a thread asking for peoples experiences with bad "earmarking". by banks. Any ideas on which forum i should post it on. This way we will get a cross section of which banks it happens with