Why does this happen?!?

AMZ80

Dear all,

This is my first post on this forum and I'd be grateful for some guidance.

I recently purchased an iPad 2 for my Mother as a gift. This was purchased online and later that day my account showed a debit of £479 to Apple etc.

The iPad arrived yesterday, we had to wait three weeks due to low stock.

This morning I checked my Bank account, I can now see my account has been debited again for £479!! Thinking I have been charged twice, I checked back through my statements online and now can find no trace of the original payment taken on the day of ordering.

I check my bank account regularly online; the original payment was showing as debited at the beginning of this week, which is when I last noticed it.

I don't have an overdraft facility and this has now caused me to go overdrawn, which is something I hate! I am with Natwest and this will have a negative effect on my ability to gain credit from them in the future.

So my question is how can this happen? How can we be excepted to manage our accounts properly if this happens?

whatyadoinsucka

hang on if you checked your accounts regularly and kept track of the balance you wouldn't have gone overdrawn as you would have seen the balance go back up and retained the funds for the debit. I do not bank with natwest so have never seen this happen.

was this a pending screen you were looking at..
my barclaycard shows pending balance, but these are irrelevant until they hit my recent transactions

bengal-stripe

When you placed your order, Apple got an authorisation from your bank for the amount in question. This money comes off your available balance instantly (gets ‘earmarked’) and gets properly booked once the transaction is presented, usually two or three days later.

In this particular case, as the item was not in stock, the charge was not presented until the goods were ready for dispatch. (Reputable mail order firms work like that, they put the proper charge through, once the goods are ready to go out. The bad firms charge you instantly, then let you wait for the merchandise, so you have, for a while at least, neither money nor item.)

If an authorised charge is not presented within a certain time limit (maybe a week) the earmarking falls off and the available balance reverts, nevertheless the authorisation still stands and the money is taken out on presentation.

AMZ80 wrote: »

I check my bank account regularly online; the original payment was showing as debited at the beginning of this week, which is when I last noticed it.

This will have happened in your case. You obviously failed to realize that the (temporary) charge had fallen off and never had reached the proper balance, so you spent the money elsewhere. Once the proper charge comes in, it takes you overdrawn. Neither bank nor merchant have done anything wrong.

Whenever you present your card, treat the charge as spent money and gone, no matter how long it takes to turn up in your account.