Turned down for a Bank account

jonesMUFCforever

Kilty wrote:

You are saying that Visa is not part of the loop when in fact they are the link between the issuing bank and the merchant bank.

Therefore they can lay down conditions and if they are not adhered to, withdraw services from the issuing banks.

I think you will find it is the other way round. The banks pay a fee to VISA to administer this worlwide system of payments.It would not be in VISA 's interest as a company to lay down terms which would turn the banks against them as they would be cutting their own throat.
Can you quote one UK bank which has had facilities withdrawn due to your argument?

Kilty_2

ejones999 wrote:

Can you quote one UK bank which has had facilities withdrawn due to your argument?

No, because AFAIK, all UK banks will operate the Visa chargeback scheme.

Know if I went into my Bank of Scotland branch as a victim of fraud they would definately initiate a chargeback.

jonesMUFCforever

Who pays?
It's your bank and card provider that pays -its their loss.

Alfie_E

ejones999 wrote:

You may well be lucky that in some circumstances they agree to refund you but no statutory right exists and 'VISA' the company - cannot override our consumer laws.

But, there’s nothing to say you can’t be given additional rights, so long as they don’t clash with statue. (There are no chargebacks from cards issued by French banks, as French law prohibits them.)

ejones999 wrote:

I think you will find it is the other way round. The banks pay a fee to VISA to administer this worlwide system of payments.It would not be in VISA 's interest as a company to lay down terms which would turn the banks against them as they would be cutting their own throat.
Can you quote one UK bank which has had facilities withdrawn due to your argument?

It’s a little more complex than that. Visa can hit a bank financially, if it doesn’t stick to the rules. Also, a merchant acquirer bank can’t realistically tell Visa just to go and get stuffed. That would leave them at a distinct disadvantage against their competitors. They will only be able to offer MasterCard processing, where their competitors can provide a combined Visa and MasterCard service.

Also, while you have correctly pointed out that the people who spend their money using a Visa card have no direct connection with Visa, they are still indirect customers and are extremely important. It’s the spending public who dictate Visa’s success, by how they choose to pay for things. It’s clearly important for Visa to take into consideration how the holders of their cards feel. If a even a small percentage of Visa users decided there was a problem with using a Visa card and switched to MasterCard or even cash, it would be Visa who lose. Why otherwise do both Visa and MasterCard advertise in the media?

ejones999 wrote:

Who pays?
It's your bank and card provider that pays -its their loss.

As Kitty said, it’s the bank that the shop used that has to pick up the loss, not your bank, if the money can’t be retrieved from the shop itself. While the bank only makes a tiny percentage of each transaction, the total volume of transactions means the total income is large. The bank can afford to take the occasional loss, in a similar way that banks accept bad debit as an inevitable part of lending money.

ejones999 wrote:

I agree that some posters on here have had success in getting their money back but it is at the bank's discretion and not mandatory.

In some countries, like the US, the chargeback is actually enshrined in law. In others, such as Australia, if a card network provides a chargeback system, card issuers must tell card holders about their chargback rights and help holders to enforce their rights. Like a lot of other things in the UK, here it’s a bit of a fudge. Banks don’t have to inform their customers that they can perform chargebacks, but chargeback rights are still effectively mandatory. See, the section entitled chargeback in the plastic cards article from the Financial Ombudsman Service. Visa do have a chargeback provision for their debit cards.