Warning: Santander debit card use at night

zerog

Last week my wife got charged 1p interest for an "unarranged overdraft" on her Santander zero account which has no overdraft.

(Back story: She has never been overdrawn in her life. In 2008 when it was still Abbey, she got charged £10 interest and wasted about 2 hours on the phone in branch, without ever getting to the bottom of it. (Why did they bother having branches if they couldn't do anything, the point was to show her driving licence and avoid the stupid security questions, which the branch staff eventually had to answer for her!))

There was no point going through that again for 1p. But I have noticed marked improvements in the competence of their secure message centre, so I thought we should type a quick message and see. I was right - they responded by the next morning. While their answer was incorrect, I immediately understood what actually happened.

In May she bought some flights on her debit card for about £200. There was not that much in her account at the time, so she transferred £200 in from the eSaver BEFORE clicking the final button. (I watched her do this. It was a holiday for the girls otherwise I would have paid )

Looking back at the statement and the email receipt from the airline, the problem was that she did this on a Saturday night. As anyone who obsesses over internet banking will know, Santander transactions after about 9pm are dated the next day (Monday in the case of Saturday, and I have the exact times if you want). However, it appears that debit card authorisations are NOT! So on his end, the secure message staff saw an unauthorised overdraft on Saturday, with funds being replenished on Monday.

Conclusion: don't use Santander debit cards after 9pm if your available balance is lower than the amount you want to spend. And 1p is still cheaper than the airline's credit card fee, though hopefully that will go away soon.

SnowTiger

zerog wrote: »

Conclusion: don't use [STRIKE]Santander[/STRIKE] debit cards [STRIKE]after 9pm[/STRIKE] if your available balance is lower than the amount you want to spend.

That's better.

YorkshireBoy

I think you'll find she needs cleared funds in the account by the end of the previous banking day, which would have been Friday in her case.

System

Never heard of being charged at authorisation stage; strictly speaking the account is only overdrawn when the debit is made. Normally, the card transaction will be declined or authorised depends on the cardholder's standing with the bank.

zerog wrote: »

Last week my wife got charged 1p interest for an "unarranged overdraft" on her Santander zero account which has no overdraft.

(Back story: She has never been overdrawn in her life. In 2008 when it was still Abbey, she got charged £10 interest and wasted about 2 hours on the phone in branch, without ever getting to the bottom of it. (Why did they bother having branches if they couldn't do anything, the point was to show her driving licence and avoid the stupid security questions, which the branch staff eventually had to answer for her!))

There was no point going through that again for 1p. But I have noticed marked improvements in the competence of their secure message centre, so I thought we should type a quick message and see. I was right - they responded by the next morning. While their answer was incorrect, I immediately understood what actually happened.

In May she bought some flights on her debit card for about £200. There was not that much in her account at the time, so she transferred £200 in from the eSaver BEFORE clicking the final button. (I watched her do this. It was a holiday for the girls otherwise I would have paid )

Looking back at the statement and the email receipt from the airline, the problem was that she did this on a Saturday night. As anyone who obsesses over internet banking will know, Santander transactions after about 9pm are dated the next day (Monday in the case of Saturday, and I have the exact times if you want). However, it appears that debit card authorisations are NOT! So on his end, the secure message staff saw an unauthorised overdraft on Saturday, with funds being replenished on Monday.

Conclusion: don't use Santander debit cards after 9pm if your available balance is lower than the amount you want to spend. And 1p is still cheaper than the airline's credit card fee, though hopefully that will go away soon.

SuperHan

She did well with a 1p charge, as the current Santander unarranged overdraft fees stand at £5 a day.

What answer did Santander give you, out of interest?

kaylz39

SuperHan wrote: »

She did well with a 1p charge, as the current Santander unarranged overdraft fees stand at £5 a day.

What answer did Santander give you, out of interest?

I thought 1p was particularly low for being £200 overdrawn. Not worth the bother of charging it surely?

Toe-Jam

It doesn't make a big difference when you have Zero Account, but I can see where the OP is coming from, and it is very costly if this happens if you have a regular Santander Account. Your available balance will say the funds are in the account and available, but the dates are post dated so it can charge you.

It has never happened to my I have to say, usually your not charged for unauthorised overdraft until the amount actually debits off the available amount, by which date The funds and dates are syncronised up properly.

Toe-Jam

SnowTiger wrote: »

That's better.

You seem to have missed the point from up there on your soap box.

The available balance is there to spend.

pmduk

Toe-Jam wrote: »

You seem to have missed the point from up there on your soap box.

The available balance is there to spend.

Read the post you've quoted again. Yes the available balance is there to spend. But that is all that's available to spend. ie spend more than that and risk charges or a decline.

dalesrider

Given that the transfer was between internal accounts. It should have shown in the debit account straight away.
Did she check that before hitting the pay button for the flights?

They should only charge on debits on the account. Remember that your limit is not a solid brick wall that you cannot spend past.

As you can send a secure message send a complaint via that method, demanding the refund of the 1p. Just mention that you are complaining, so it has to be logged on their systems and has to be resolved within approx 2 working days or they will have to send you a letter.

Buzby

I was in exactly this situation, with debit card, eSaver but a Santander everyday current account. I did not have the issue you described, as I transferred the amount from Savings to Current at 0900, which then showed my live balance on the current account at be higher rate. At 1500 I went into the travel agency and paid £1,800 with my debit card. At 2300 that night my available balance had decreased by the TA debit but it was not showing as part of the itemisation.

It was a further 38 hrs before the available balance and current account balance matched, with the debit correctly itemised so it did not affect me in the way you described.