Just charged for something on my card that I bought a year ago!

greenchicken

Hi all, I'm a newbie so please be gentle!

I was looking through my debit card statement and noticed I had been charged £42.50 by a leisure company in the town I used to live in, and where my parents still live. The only thing I could think it was was a pair of concert tickets I bought about a year ago.

I called them and the lady explained this must be what it was for, as the amount sounded right, and that they had experienced a problem where HSBC had only just processed card transactions for a 6 week period from last year. Unfortunately they didn't have a way of telling which customers had been affected so had no way to warn people.

I can't remember exactly when I ordered the tickets so haven't been able to get the right statement to see if I was initially charged, but does this sound like something that could happen? Aren't there any rules that you have to be charged for goods you have ordered within a certain time limit? What if I no longer had the bank account?!

Any advice?

stclair

Funds can be claimed upto 6 years later....

Ben8282

If you believe the charge to be genuine and it has not previously appeared on your 'debit card statement', then you have benefited by having an extra £42.50 for one year.

Yes, the charge was delayed for an exceptionally long period and, yes, it would be normal practice to give you notice in advance of their intention to debit this amount, but if you believe the charge to be genuine and as they have at least offered an explanation (which may or may not be true), is it really worth making a fuss about especially as you have benefited from the error.

I think the most important thing is to check if it has or has not been previously debited. Without determining this it is difficult to know how to proceed.

princess*daisy

Ben8282 wrote: »

is it really worth making a fuss about especially as you have benefited from the error.

How do you know that the OP has benefited from the error? Perhaps he/she had sufficient funds to clear the payment at the time, but 12 months later has been charged for this, say, a week before payday when his/her funds might be limited? This could result in the OP incurring either a bank charge or having insufficient funds to pay for other necessary living expenses, e.g. food or transport to work.

Given that we are most likely talking about the OP's current account here, which tend to pay minimal or no interest at all, the only way he/she is genuinely likely to have benefited by this error is if he/she is extremely fortunate to have this happen to him/her all the time and whacks it all in an ISA until the companies decide to take it back with advance warning the following year!!!