Credit card authorisation - advice needed.

Simon7685

Sorry if this is a bit long winded but here goes.

I set up a direct debit from my current account to top up my daughters mobile each month on the 20th. As part of the process I had to give my credit card details. So if there was a problem with the direct debit they would charge the card and the top up would happen anyway. All sounds great in theory.

The first thing I noticed was as well as applying for the DD they were also placing an authorisation for the amount against the card as well. They then leave that on there until it drops off after 7 days. I was not happy with this as it seemed a bit odd to say the least. I intended to remove the card details from the account only to find you had to have a card registered to use the service. So I thought I would just run with it even though I wasn't entirely happy.

On Monday my daughter said she hadn't received her monthly credit, so I logged into the account with tesco mobile. It said that the DD had been declined:eek:. So I checked with my bank which was in credit and they had not declined the DD. I then checked the credit card and true to form they had placed the authorisation. So I thought OK whatever the problem was they would still get their money and my daughter would get her credit.

This morning I checked my bank and the DD had been taken, so much for it being declined. My daughter still had not received her credit though and the authorisation against my credit card was still there.

So I rang Tesco Mobile to try and sort this out. They use a company called Mi Pay to manage there top up system, so the lady said she would go and speak to them and find out what was going on. She came back and said Mi Pay had said they only have a certain amount of time to apply the DD on the day it is due, if they don't do it within that time frame their system declines the DD and this is what had happened. So the money should never have taken from my bank today. They were going to arrange for the money to be returned which would take at least 3 days. In the meantime they wanted to take a payment from my debit card, so they could apply the credit to my duaghters phone. In effect this meant;

a. They had taken £15 from my bank.
b. They were holding an authorisation against my CC for £15
c. I needed to pay them another £15 to get her the credit.

I politely declined this kind offer and said I would be closing the account and going back to topping her phone up manually. The lady at Tesco Mobile said this had happened to her and she had stopped using Mi Pay, so it is obviously not a one off.

Anyway I called the Halifax to explain what had gone on, they have immediately refunded me the amount of the DD they took today and have cancelled the DD.

My concern now, is the authorisation Mi Pay are holding against my CC. Is there any way I can have this removed? I have looked and I don't think there is. So if they now take the money from the card, what do I do, as they have not given her the credit?

I intend to close the account with Mi Pay, am I better to wait until this is sorted out and the authorisation drops off first, or would it be better to do it today?

The logical thing would be to contact Mi Pay to sort this out but you can't, you have to go through Tesco Mobile, they will not speak directly to you. This is a complete shambles of a system and I would warn anyone thinking of using it, don't!