Tesco "test purchases"???? Thoughts anyone????

Col7777

If you have just the right amount of money in to pay for something and they do this, they put you overdrawn don't they, then you could end up having to pay £30 to the bank for being overdrawn, or have I got it wrong?

Renya

Col7777 wrote: »

If you have just the right amount of money in to pay for something and they do this, they put you overdrawn don't they, then you could end up having to pay £30 to the bank for being overdrawn, or have I got it wrong?

I believe they could, a similar thing has happened to me, I was trying to buy tickets for Thorpe Park online with just enough money on it to buy them, it wouldn't let me purchase them so I tried a few more times but it still didn't go through, I rang up Barclays and they said a company called Cyota had processed 3 £1 orders, of course I had no clue who this company was and neither did the person on the phone, she was just about to cancel my card for fraud when I Googled the company. If you ever get a pop-up after purchasing something going by the name of 'Verified by Visa' or something like that, then I think that is basically Cyota testing your card.

I know New Look, Topshop and Miss Selfridge use this, you do get your money back within 10 days but it's incredibly annoying if you have just enough money to buy something and then can't because Cyota will test your card! :mad:

Col7777

I've had that 'Verify Visa' thing, I didn't realise they took money, thanks for that I'll watch out in future.

TwistedPsycho

I must admit I use Verified by Visa with most of my online transactions from Domino's Pizza to Novatech and beyond.
I have NEVER had a pre-authorisation taken by any of them, because I am paying for a good or service there and then.

HOWEVER

Petrol Pay At Pump services generally do, which if you have a SOLO card is usually £20 and they recommend you fill up on a SOLO to that amount so that you are not left short.

I_luv_cats

One can get sick of these card pre-auth.

Amazon did one on the 17th Nov and still pending! SO

I had to put another £5 on my o2 money card so I could connect my new Ipod 4G to Itunes, so they could pre-auth £1.58 for a free download!! ANNOYING.

Vaila

this happened to me a few days ago, was very annoying as its mentioned no where on the statement etc
it came off after a few days , but i think that all companies that utilise this "test" charge should make their customers aware of it

AfterDark

LisaM684 wrote: »

Please help!!

It's not the £2 I'm annoyed about but the fact that they did not tell me and it says nothing about it on their T&C's. I normally only pay the exact amount into my account as it is only used for payments, but the jumper was a little cheaper than expected, luckily, or there wouldn't have been enough to cover the cost of the bloody bike because of their "test purchase" :mad:

On top of that........it cost me over £3 to call the bank!!

Why do companies do this, is it allowed??

Anyone's thoughts, or indeed knowledge on this subject would be massively appreciated??

Take it you meant to put you never read there T&Cs rather than it's not in them. Just had a quick look and it's in there 1st section

http://www.tesco.com/termsandconditions/termsconditionsGeneral.htm

I_luv_cats

Another annoying thing!!!

Itunes gets a £1 auth for a 54p spend - why is that??

It really messes up my avail balance.