Using a Natwest current account card, money doesnt come out??

bradztheman

Ive used my natwest current account card, and noticed that when making some purchases online, and sometimes in a shop, the money does not come off the available balance at all, and its there to spend. Has anyone else noticed this?? surely thats not on, as its caused me to go overdrawn a couple of times as i thought i had money in the account when in actual fact i didnt!!

ILW

Some places process quicker then others. Keep a note of what you have spent.

Phils_debt

Asda seem to take forever to take the money from the account

bradztheman

is this not natwest's fault? as the sites ive purchased from actually sent the goods, and i recieved before the money had even come out! on the email receipt is said the transaction payment had cleared too.

Gromitt

So what you saying is that you can't keep track of your money?

It can take days, sometimes weeks for a payment you make in a store to be taken from your account, so you must always leave this amount of money in your account.

Going to an ATM and saying "I can spent whatever it tells me is my available balance" is a very bad way of managing your finances.

The payment is guaranteed, so the goods can be sent before the money has been taken.

bradztheman

Phils_debt wrote: »

Asda seem to take forever to take the money from the account

is that when using a natwest current account card??

im sure this is a natwest fault, as when using other banks eg halifax it comes off straight away

Vikipollard

No, it's not Nat West's fault. They can take the money up to six months after the purchase is made.

You need to track what you spend, that's all. You know you've bought things so you know the money will be going. I certainly know if my bank balance is showing more than I know there should be in there because my budget is so tight!! Write it down if you need to, and put the post-it or whatever with your debit card. That way you won't misremember the money has been spent.

jen245

With Natwest, authorisations drop off after 48 hours until the payment actually debits the account. For example, when I pay my council tax, the funds are earmarked instantly on my available balance, but after 48 hours, it drops off and looks like I've got the money to spend, but the payment always comes out the day after the authorisation drops off, as it takes my LA 3 days to process their payments.

Southernman

At the end of the day, when you make a purchase on your debit card the payment will come out otherwise the retailer will be giving out items for free regardless of if you have enough money in your account or not.

It's your responsibility to not spend beyond your means and keep a track of your balances. Natwest even makes this easy in the form of online banking/telephone banking and the Natwest App that can be downloaded to Iphones/blackberrys/android. Even if you have a basic phone as long as it can send and receive texts you can get yourself set up for the text alert service where you're notified once your money goes below a certain amount.

If this still causes you issues, then just pay for everything in cash and monitor when direct debits are due to come out so you always have funds to cover them.

Another option is have a savings account where a standing order is set up when you get paid to go into it and you can use it as an alternative to an overdraft.

p00hsticks

In the 'olden days' before debit and ATM cards, you had to write cheques whenever you wanted to pay for anything or to withdraw cash. When writing a cheque, there would be space on the cheque book stub for you to record your current balance, the amount of the cheque and therefore the available balance going forward.

Times may have changed, but,the need for you to do something similar have not, especially if your finances are such that you may end up going overdrawn and thus incur charges. You CANNOT assume that your bank will necessarily be aware straight away that you have used your debit card to make a payment - there are a number of scenarios where the first they will know of it is when the payment details are received from the merchant (via their card acquirer and the card company) and, as other posters have said, this can theoretically be many months after your purchase.

fozmcfc

All in all of course it is up to us to know the money available to us.

I bank with Natwest and I find with most transcations the money shows as being debited from my available balance, immediately after purchase, so it's not available to me.

Like jen245 says, it then tends to drop off when the money is actually due out and then appears as coming out.

I paid my CC with my debit card on Friday and checking online, the money wasn't available to me instantly after I had made the payment. Then Monday the available balance changed and the payment came out of my actual balance on Monday also.

The only time that doesn't seem to happen is when I use Paypal, normally that doesn't come off my balance until 2 or 3 days later.

So I guess like the old days, paypal is like writing a cheque, where if say you were paid on Friday, you could pay for something by Paypal on Thursday and still withdraw the cash on Thursday too, then by the time the Paypal payment has come through you've been paid.