Debit card and 'reserved' money

skeggysteve

Not sure that this is in the right place so Mods please move if necessary - thanks.

Ok I'll try and make this make sense - 'cause I'm confused & mad!

I made a debit card payment, by phone, last night.
ie a 'card holder not present' transaction.

Today I get a call, from the company I have made the payment to, telling me that the payment was 'declined' (their words) and would I call my bank and find out why.

I called my bank

(well I got then to call me back via their website - don't like 0870 numbers!! - and I did look on saynoto0870, before you ask)

they, after some prompting told my that the payment had been authorised and gave me the authorisation number.

So I call the company back and get told the following:

We asked for the money but it was declined, but your bank reserve the money.

Our Merchant service company (Barcleycard Merchant Services) asked for the money again (because it was declined the first time?) but it was declined.

( Because there was not enough money in my account, well no suprise there 'cause they had already 'reserved' the first lot)

So we called you to tell you it had been declined.


So get my bank to call me back again and:

We (the bank - Halifax) are 'legally' obliged to reserve the money for 4 days just in case we have to pay it.

You can go into your local branch and fill in a dispute form and we will then refund your money.

Yes if the 2nd payment had been declined, for any
other reason than you not having enough money in your account, we would have reseved the same amount again.

Yes the amount doesn't matter, in my case it was only £15 but they told me the same could happen if it was £1500.

..........................................

So I'm now £15 down in my bank account and the company I wanted to pay don't have that money.

I know it will 'come' back into my bank account sometime but thats not the point - it is MY money.

Either the bank should pay it to the company I want to pay it to or let me have it?

One final point:

I think I know the problem.......

I don't have a house number only a house name.

With the new Chip & Pin thingy if a supplier does a 'card holder not present' they have to, after all the other numbers, enter the numbers from the card holders post code and then the house number.....bit difficult if you don't have a number!

Any help, information, similar stories etc most welcome.

Steve.

All spelling and grammer errors in this post are the fault of my keyboard & nothing to do with me.

sunflower_2

skeggysteve wrote:

Not sure that this is in the right place so Mods please move if necessary - thanks.

Ok I'll try and make this make sense - 'cause I'm confused & mad!

I made a debit card payment, by phone, last night.
ie a 'card holder not present' transaction.

Today I get a call, from the company I have made the payment to, telling me that the payment was 'declined' (their words) and would I call my bank and find out why.

I called my bank

(well I got then to call me back via their website - don't like 0870 numbers!! - and I did look on saynoto0870, before you ask)

they, after some prompting told my that the payment had been authorised and gave me the authorisation number.

So I call the company back and get told the following:

We asked for the money but it was declined, but your bank reserve the money.

Our Merchant service company (Barcleycard Merchant Services) asked for the money again (because it was declined the first time?) but it was declined.

( Because there was not enough money in my account, well no suprise there 'cause they had already 'reserved' the first lot)

So we called you to tell you it had been declined.


So get my bank to call me back again and:

We (the bank - Halifax) are 'legally' obliged to reserve the money for 4 days just in case we have to pay it.

You can go into your local branch and fill in a dispute form and we will then refund your money.

Yes if the 2nd payment had been declined, for any
other reason than you not having enough money in your account, we would have reseved the same amount again.

Yes the amount doesn't matter, in my case it was only £15 but they told me the same could happen if it was £1500.

..........................................

So I'm now £15 down in my bank account and the company I wanted to pay don't have that money.

I know it will 'come' back into my bank account sometime but thats not the point - it is MY money.

Either the bank should pay it to the company I want to pay it to or let me have it?

One final point:

I think I know the problem.......

I don't have a house number only a house name.

With the new Chip & Pin thingy if a supplier does a 'card holder not present' they have to, after all the other numbers, enter the numbers from the card holders post code and then the house number.....bit difficult if you don't have a number!

Any help, information, similar stories etc most welcome.

Steve.

All spelling and grammer errors in this post are the fault of my keyboard & nothing to do with me.

this is shocking
am not suprised to hear its Halifax in the spotlight again !!!

similar thing happened to me when ordering contact lenses from USA website

when i put the order through, they "reserved" that amount on my debit card
but i made an error with the shipping, so they charged my card with a higher amount
but my "withdrawal amount" showed less because the "reserved" payment and the debit were both taken into account

i was so annoyed
no-one would take responsibility ( i believe i posted on this site about it at the time i was tearing my hair out)

think it took about a week for the funds to become available again

does anyone know how they can get away with this ???

skeggysteve

sunflower wrote:

this is shocking
am not suprised to hear its Halifax in the spotlight again !!!

....................
does anyone know how they can get away with this ???

I only have one problem with the Halifax but I don't have the energy to go into it now! Most of the time they are very good and they have a great CS team, maybe because they are all Irish and so helpful?

.......................
Because they are a bank? !!!

Savvy_Sue

Flipping Asda did similar thing to me, nearly did my head in.

Now that's a useful thing to know about the house number, because we haven't got one either. I know when topping up Orange phones by credit card you have to put in the numbers in your address, excluding postcode, but that system 'recognises' if you don't put anything in then. I will watch out for problems, haven't had any so far.

Debt_Free_Chick

With the new Chip & Pin thingy if a supplier does a 'card holder not present' they have to, after all the other numbers, enter the numbers from the card holders post code and then the house number.....bit difficult if you don't have a number!

What kind of house name do you have? Is it a name that was just added by a previous owner? Or is the actual address, as recorded by the Local Authority, a name and not a number?

I live in a house with no number and no street! Just a name for the house then the village name. This causes no problems as this is my address, according the LA.

Problems arise when someone decides that they want to name 5 Acacia Avenue as Dunroamin'. The name is not part of the address.

You need to check the correct address for your house with the LA and only use that for online transactions & credit checks etc.

HTH

Curry_Queen

I'm not surprised to hear that it's the Halifax involved in this ... one of the reasons I left them :mad:

A similar problem happened to me a year ago when I purchased a fridge/freezer online at Comets. It was on a "weekend special" at £199.99 (saving around £150 on rrp I think) but because the bank records have an additional and unnecessary line in my address (which I'd forgotten to include in my order to Comet) they declined the transaction, yet it was reserved for payment by Halifax. Not only did I have £200 withheld in my bank account but once the funds were released (5 days later) the offer on the fridge freezer had ended :mad:

davidcampbell

sorry to be a killjoy but halifax havent done anything wrong.

they have had a request for a payment which they have authorised. steve, halifax now hold the money aside waiting for the company to collect it. they dont know that the company havent got the matching authorisation (until you told them) and they wont change this until they do know that for sure.

the pending amount will drop off in the next 3 days but thats a long time.

quickest resolve is ask halifax for the fax number of their authoirsation department and tell them you will get the company to fax them confirming they will not debit the payment.

then give the company the fax number - ask them to send it on headed notepaper, detailing the transaction amount, date and time (approx) and that they would not be collecting it.

on receipt halifax should be able to cancel the pending amount (might be close of business though before its done) and bobs your uncle

im very suprised no-one at halifax could suggest that.


hth

DC

Curry_Queen

I agree that it's not entirely the fault of the Halifax, but I did ask them to do exactly what you describe above and they refused/could not do it. This is why I am not happy with them :mad:


Edit: Sorry had to cut that message short due to the electric guy turning up and needing the power turned off!

What I was going to add was that when it comes to dealing with anything like this, the Halifax are worse than useless and will make no attempt to help you out whatsoever. I think I may have mentioned in a previous thread regarding them, that for a period of time I was having two lots of payment withheld for every transaction I made via Paypal, effectively rendering half of my money unusable for 5 days until it dropped off the pending payment list and the Halifax said the could do absolutely nothing about it and referred me back to Paypal. Funnily enough I got exactly the same response from Paypal too :mad:

Savvy_Sue

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

What kind of house name do you have? Is it a name that was just added by a previous owner? Or is the actual address, as recorded by the Local Authority, a name and not a number?

I live in a house with no number and no street! Just a name for the house then the village name. This causes no problems as this is my address, according the LA.

Problems arise when someone decides that they want to name 5 Acacia Avenue as Dunroamin'. The name is not part of the address.

You need to check the correct address for your house with the LA and only use that for online transactions & credit checks etc.

I don't know about the LA, but according to the PO our house has no number. And that is where the problem starts: our house has an almost identical name to the MoD site - ours doesn't have a space in it, theirs does - so people type in what they think is the MoD address and up pops our postcode.

It has its funny side: like when people turn up for 'meetings' because they've found our house on their SatNav system ...

But sometimes I wonder whether we wouldn't be better getting a house number like everyone else.

skeggysteve

Debt Free Chick:
The house has had the same name, The Elms from about 1900, prior to that it was called The Elms Farm since it was built in about 1600.
Think thats long enough for anyone to get used to the name!
My postcode is just my house.

davidcampbell:
Sorry got to dis-agree.
Yes the Halifax do have a legal obligation to the merchant service company, who ever they are, but it is they, the Halifax that agreed to the conditions.
If the Halifax have authorised the payment then surely, as the money has not been paid, they can un-authorise it? OK maybe not that simple but you get my drift.
Bottom line is the Halifax have not been in the least bit helpful. They seem to have forgotten that it is my money and more importantly I am the customer.
OK I have to agree the both companies are to blame in someway - for one they both have an appauling attitude to their customers.

Curry Queen:
Yes I have the same problem with Paypal and yes I got the same brush off from halifax & Paypal! Just got used to it.

Savvy Sue:
!!!!!!!!
Just be careful when MI5 / 6 turn up!

Thanks to all,

Steve

Savvy_Sue

skeggysteve wrote:

Savvy Sue:
!!!!!!!!
Just be careful when MI5 / 6 turn up!

Fortunately it's not a manufacturing base, otherwise I think we'd probably get regular deliveries of parts! Maybe that's where all my freebies go ...