Santander, delayed debit card money machine busted

Toe-Jam

coolesticeking wrote: »

It sounds like you have the Offline Debit Card which does not always check your account has available funds before authorisation is given.

Ask Santander for a Full-Authorisation Visa Debit Card instead and this will take the money for any transactions immediately.

Always go on the Available Funds also not the balance - The 'Balance' is the Statement View for when transactions have been processed by the bank.

Having a full auth card doesn't make much difference sometimes, Santander put the money back in your account on the 4th day, so if the transaction is taking a long time to be presented then it will be back in your account available to spend regardless of the card type you have.

The full auth card also allows you to spend more than you have, you can even take money out of the atm that you don't have (and get a nice big charge for doing so).

Toe-Jam

GlynD wrote: »

They seem to be really annoying people. The Londonderry branch seems to be the worst - look what the customers did there

That was actually the old A&L branch, the Abbey version is literally across the street.

I think it is Santander head offices way of closing down branches without being blames for job losses.

In Belfast there are 3 Santander branches next to each other and you STILL grow old in the queue.

dmliverpool

Will do that card type switch I thought there was a silly delay and it makes sense now. I wish Santander would tell me this as I bank with them and not you guys lol. I think overall they are a poor bank and my experience isn't that good and voting with my feet is best at a time that suits my plans. I'm just glad I didn't fall behind with the bank charges and not have a choice. I do think they are in this game to put people into bank Charge debt though with the card I have. Thanks for the information.

GlynD

Toe-Jam wrote: »

That was actually the old A&L branch, the Abbey version is literally across the street.

I think it is Santander head offices way of closing down branches without being blames for job losses.

In Belfast there are 3 Santander branches next to each other and you STILL grow old in the queue.

There are dissidents in Belfast too

dmliverpool

Just to add to this, I have had over 10 people who bank with Santander say the same thing. Debit card payments are taking 10-15 days to come off account balances meaning they think that they have more money on the go.

Then once they spend the amount they think they have the payments then come out making you go overdrawn. Once overdrawn you either pay for the overdraft usage fee if you don't come out of it, or worse still they give you a bank charge which comes out a month later. Then the cycle goes on again but with a bank charge that will almost certainly come out at a mean point at which the bank knows you have the least amount of fund in your current account. Say between the 18-27th of each month as its just before pay day for many.:cool:

I knew it wasn't just me, how many other people out there are having this trouble as I don't think its as common as a card issue or bad financial planning, as my account is tip top and they are still doing this to me and it feels like I am leaking money to them.:mad:

Toe-Jam

dmliverpool wrote: »

Just to add to this, I have had over 10 people who bank with Santander say the same thing. Debit card payments are taking 10-15 days to come off account balances meaning they think that they have more money on the go.

Then once they spend the amount they think they have the payments then come out making you go overdrawn. Once overdrawn you either pay for the overdraft usage fee if you don't come out of it, or worse still they give you a bank charge which comes out a month later. Then the cycle goes on again but with a bank charge that will almost certainly come out at a mean point at which the bank knows you have the least amount of fund in your current account. Say between the 18-27th of each month as its just before pay day for many.:cool:

I knew it wasn't just me, how many other people out there are having this trouble as I don't think its as common as a card issue or bad financial planning, as my account is tip top and they are still doing this to me and it feels like I am leaking money to them.:mad:

Exactly the same thing happening to me as well

21/06/2011 CARD PAYMENT TO O2 UK,50.09 GBP ON 10-06-2011

Money was available to spend the whole time and i have one of those "online" cards.

kazclogs

The same happened to me today too, I had a transction from 11 days ago come out of my account this morning and pushed me into overdraft. When I called them just now they were great, explained that this is an ongoing issue that has affected many customers' account transactions between the 10th and 12th of June and offered to give me a hundred pounds overdraft to do me til pay day and will reverse the bank charges when they appear next month.

No hassle at all. Good job Santander, admitted the problem and offered a solution!

girlonaswing_2

Further to my post on the other Santander thread about this, they have admitted to me today that there was a problem with Visa transaction bewteen 9th and 12th June not being processed until yesterday (the 21st).

This hasn't happened to me before, the online system is always accurate, and it beggars belief that apparently they didn't know about this for nearly 2 weeks.

Santander are hopeless.

girlonaswing_2

x posted with you kazclogs

My experience with them was totally the opposite to yours, I've been telling Santander that there was a problem for a week and its taken then until today to realise/acknowledge it. The staff I spoke to took the stance that I couldn't possibly be right and that it wasn't anything to do with them.

I don't mind that the system had a glitch, these things happen, but I do mind having to deal with their hopeless attitude.

jonesMUFCforever

Why not use a credit card for the majority of these transactions?
If you are lucky and the transactions are late being debited you will get an extra month to pay.

Might be worth considering for those who would pay the bills in full each month.