Over Drawn - Help!

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Ok, here is the situation.

I went into a shop on Friday and spent £300 using my visa debit bank card.

The payment originally was rejected due to the amount. The shop rang for an authorisation code. Gave me a "transaction rejected" slip. Ran the transaction again, I put my card in and it accepted it.

Today I checked my bank - I've had another £300 come out, same shop, but this time yesterday.

Rang the bank - They're blaming VISA. Rang VISA, they're blaming the shop. Rang the shop, They're blaming the bank.

The bank are saying the shop tried to take the money 3 times. 1 Payment went through, 1 payment was cancelled and 1 is "outstanding"

I'm now over drawn in bank, no money on me. Shop are ringing their bank to see whether they need to do anything. Natwest not helping at all, Neither are VISA.

The shop have said even if they do cancel the transaction the money wont go into my account today and cant tell me when it will.

Who is actually to blame?

izools

It's just a symptom of the way card authorisations work sometimes. The shop will see one sucecssfull authorisation but it will have duplicated on the system somewhere - could be VISA's fault, the merchant's fault, Natwests fault, hard to say.

Call Natwest again and demand to speak to VISA Authorisations and explain to them that it's a dupe authorisation - they should be able to check and see the references being the same and drop one off.

And you aren't overdrawn - if your available balance is over but your ledger balance isn't, then you won't get charged by the bank or incur interest. The funds have just been reserved, they haven't been taken

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

izools wrote: »

It's just a symptom of the way card authorisations work sometimes. The shop will see one sucecssfull authorisation but it will have duplicated on the system somewhere - could be VISA's fault, the merchant's fault, Natwests fault, hard to say.

Call Natwest again and demand to speak to VISA Authorisations and explain to them that it's a dupe authorisation - they should be able to check and see the references being the same and drop one off.

And you aren't overdrawn - if your available balance is over but your ledger balance isn't, then you won't get charged by the bank or incur interest. The funds have just been reserved, they haven't been taken

Hm spoke to VISA - They said they wont / cant do anything as the transaction is pending

The shop wont do anything as they havent had the funds

The bank have given me the athorisation codes which should NOT have gone through and have told me to tell the shop to cancel them.

Rang the shop back,. gave them the codes, they are saying they havent took the money and I havent gone over drawn (similar to what you have put) but have sent them screen shots of my on line statements. Its showing:

Account Name/ Account Number / Sort Code / Balance / Available
xxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/ -103.17 / 0.00

On my statement it says:

Date..................type.............Description..........Paid in.........Paid out ............balance
12th Sept........... POS.............xxxx ...................................£15.27...............£11.65
9th Sept .............POS ...........- ........................................£300.00...............-
13th Sept ............BAC ............xxxxxx ...............185.18 ................................-

So - balance was 11.65, minus 300 is -288.35 add the 185.18 gives me a negative balance of -103.17

izools

But the transaction doesn't bear the name of the retailer meaning it hasn't actually been taken - it's just been earmarked.

Your "Available funds" are -£103.17 but your "Balance" isn't.

There's nothing anyone can do I'm afraid until the pending auth drops off, which takes a few days.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

If I log onto my account it says "Balance" -£103.17 and available £0.00

I dont HAVE any available funds.

NatWest are adament the shop can cancel the transaction and have given the shop the authorisation codes to cancel it... It's the only account I have, I dont have any cash on me, and now thanks to the shop I cant get any from the ATM :-(

System

Similar thing happened to me a few years ago. I eventually got my bank to admit there was a fault with the Card Reader at the retailer and as a matter of luck, the card services at the retailer were actually owned by the same group as my bank so they admitted responsibility, reversed the faulty duplicated transaction and gave me £50 compensation.

But, I was not able to get access to my own funds for a couple of days, very annoying and potentially embarrassing.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

BAA1 wrote: »

Similar thing happened to me a few years ago. I eventually got my bank to admit there was a fault with the Card Reader at the retailer and as a matter of luck, the card services at the retailer were actually owned by the same group as my bank so they admitted responsibility, reversed the faulty duplicated transaction and gave me £50 compensation.

But, I was not able to get access to my own funds for a couple of days, very annoying and potentially embarrassing.

My OH believes it is a fault with the PDQ machine in store also. He says that he believes the payment will be "pending" until they do their PDQ banking (He used to do PDQ banking - I dont have the foggiest!)

Shop being very unhelpful. Mind you, so is the bank!

I'm going to have to see Bank of Dad later - which is something i REALLY dont want to have to do

izools

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

If I log onto my account it says "Balance" -£103.17 and available £0.00

I dont HAVE any available funds.

NatWest are adament the shop can cancel the transaction and have given the shop the authorisation codes to cancel it... It's the only account I have, I dont have any cash on me, and now thanks to the shop I cant get any from the ATM :-(

You're right - you don't have any available funds.

However I am guessing the £300 transaction is still pale on your list of transactions and doesn't have the name of the shop against it? This means they haven't "TRANSFERRED" the funds, they've ust "EARMARKED" them.

The pending auth will drop off in a few days and return to your account. In the mean time there's nothing you can do unless NW / RBS are willing to further you an Overdraft

Sucks, I know. I've been there before. Thankfully I was given a temporary OD.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

izools wrote: »

You're right - you don't have any available funds.

However I am guessing the £300 transaction is still pale on your list of transactions and doesn't have the name of the shop against it? This means they haven't "TRANSFERRED" the funds, they've ust "EARMARKED" them.

The pending auth will drop off in a few days and return to your account. In the mean time there's nothing you can do unless NW / RBS are willing to further you an Overdraft

Sucks, I know. I've been there before. Thankfully I was given a temporary OD.

Have already asked about this with NatWest - They said it COULD take up to 30 days to automatically drop off. If the shop cancels the transaction then the funds will be back in my account no later than 4 working days.


Natwest told me to report the "legit" £300 as fraud to get the money back and let the "pending" one go through. Have informed the shop of this.

EDIT: Have just actually heard from the shop whilst writing this and they HAVE now cancelled the transaction and said it will be in my account "within 24 hours"

I wont hold my breath!

izools

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

Have just actually heard from the shop whilst writing this and they HAVE now cancelled the transaction and said it will be in my account "within 24 hours"

I wont hold my breath!

Excellent news! Well done

I hope it goes through as they say it will :beer:

Toe-Jam

Pending transactions drop back into your account after 4 days with Natwest if they are not claimed, you are not overdrawn until your available balance goes negative. This is when the money is actually removed from your account.

So you should be ok, in that you won't be charged, I know it means you can't spend the money cause its tied up for a few days.