Cancelling Debit Card Payment Authorisation

colin8

I am after some urgen advice please.

I had to provide my debit card details to a company when I took out a hire car. My car was written off after an accident, no fault of my own, and I was provided with a hire car through an accident management firm that my insurer provided.

Unfortunately, the hire car was vandalised by an "idiot" keying all the cars parked up the road. I have obtained an incident number and this is being further investigated by the police. However, I have been sent a letter and bill of £600 to have the damage repaired, because there is no third party involved.

I wish to dispute the bill, however, as mentioned above they have taken my debit card details, and on their letter it stipulates that if I do not settle the bill within 7 days with a one off payment, they will debit the card regardless.

Could anyone please advise as to whether when I call them to say I am disputing the bill and seeking legal advice, if I tell them that they cannot debit the account, firstly, because of my complaint, and secondly, because the funds are not available, will they still do so? Would I be best to cancel the debit card and ask for a new one, although, I have seen on other forums that "recurring debit agreements" can be transferred to the new card number by the bank, would this apply to the one off payment that they are proposing to take.

I would appreciate some advice asap, as the letter was dated 17 February.

izools

Report the card as lost / stolen to your bank. Their charge to the card will then decline so long as it is not pending already.

Recurring authorisations are only authorised to cards that were cancelled / expired but never reported as lost / stolen.

This will give you time to settle your dispute with the hire company without being #600.00 out of pocket in the mean time.

Good luck! :beer:

Superheavy

As izools mentioned, you will want to check with your bank to see if they already have an authorisation on your account, many car hire companies will take an authorisation when the car is lent out, if this is the case then they can't decline it afterwards. From the title of the thread it looks like this is the case, so get in touch with the bank, explain the situation, and see if they can help with temporary overdraft.

colin8

Thank you for your replies. I have contacted my bank regarding the situation and they have informed me there is nothing they can do. They cannot prevent a payment being taken and that I have to speak to the company to resolve this. I will be calling both my insurers and the accidental mamangement company later after work to find out where I stand.

It seems on reading other forums on the internet, that car hire companies usually advise their customers to take out additional cover in the event of this happening, but I was not informed by either my insurers or the accidental management company of this. On the form it stated an £300 excess applicable in the event of any accident, but to end up with a £600 bill when the car was damaged by vandalism (no third party to recover costs from) seems very unfair. It certainly does feel that "every silver lining hs its cloud!!!"

izools

Ask them catagorically "IS THERE A PENDING AUTHORISATION AGAINST MY VISA DEBIT CARD FOR £600".

If the answer is NO, report your card stolen. It will then be declined.

Ignore the other garb they're telling you, this is just because some front line bank helpdesks aren't very good or knowledgeable. Quoting from their phrasebook without actually knowing what they're on about...

Toe-Jam

izools wrote: »

Ask them catagorically "IS THERE A PENDING AUTHORISATION AGAINST MY VISA DEBIT CARD FOR £600".

If the answer is NO, report your card stolen. It will then be declined.

Ignore the other garb they're telling you, this is just because some front line bank helpdesks aren't very good or knowledgeable. Quoting from their phrasebook without actually knowing what they're on about...

Exactly. Just call them tell them its lost, no need to even mention anything about the Care Hire company, If there was a pending amount you would see it on your online banking as a difference between the balance and the available.

Just report the card lost immediately.