Debit Card Trickery - santander

bigk77irl

This is the situation

Just spent a weekend at a judo competition in Southend and paid for food and drink because it was an overnight stay also before going to Southend had to buy some winter clothing...now as we were spending the available to draw out was going down accordingly but the balance on the account remained static....i left enough in to cover bank charges that were coming out. now a few days after the weekend i phone up to check the balance and now am over the overdraft limit so go to cashpoint to get mini statement and lo and behold the money that i spent on card at weekend came out today(3 days after spending it)...
how comes that the banks cannot update the balance there and then to reflect the amount you can get out rather than wait on it 3 days before it shows up on the balance sheet? is this legal??? is this the new way of making sure that you pay overdraft charges?
grrrrr makes me :mad: because we live in a world where we can transfer money instantly and yet cant even update the balance til a few days later.....oh by the way the bank is Santander

Is that legal???

opinions4u

How come you can't subtract one number from another to make sure you only spend your own money?

bigk77irl

I did and guess what have been doing that for months on end..moved standing orders/ direct debits to one day to make sure i got money rest of month and guess what the same is still happening. with all the super-computers(including the human brain) in the world yet it still happens

bengal-stripe

bigk77irl wrote: »

...now as we were spending the available to draw out was going down accordingly but the balance on the account remained static....

A debit card transaction that got an authorisation will show on your available balance immediately, but takes two or three days to get booked (that booking will show in your balance proper). Sometime the transaction might be below the shop's floor limit (no need to get an authorisation) and will not show-up until booked.

You ought to know when and for how much you have used your card. You can get a pocket calculator for as little as a quid.

dalesrider

bigk77irl wrote: »

how comes that the banks cannot update the balance there and then to reflect the amount you can get out rather than wait on it 3 days before it shows up on the balance sheet? is this legal??? is this the new way of making sure that you pay overdraft charges?

Is that legal???

Blame the retailers... Not the bank.

Often a retailer will request a lower amount than the actual amount spent.
Also just because a transaction is authorised, does not mean that it will debit.

To be fair. If you knew how much your balance was before you went, and then spent, on the card. Then checked your balance again. Did you not realise that the money had not debited?

Many people lives their lives knowing that spending on a friday and sat will (hopefully) not debit till monday. So can spend knowing that funds coming in on monday will cover the weekend spend.

The only way what you want to happen is for everybody to have a auth all card (which means contacting bank for approval) and then declines if you balance is not enough to cover the debit....
Not something that the modern way of banking fits into.
As so long as your account is in credit at the end of the day. You don't get charged.
Never mind the fact that any break in the authorisation system will mean cash only at the tills....

Hooloovoo

bigk77irl wrote: »

now as we were spending the available to draw out was going down accordingly but the balance on the account remained static

The "balance" tells you the current balance.

The "available to spend" tells you what is available to spend including any pending transactions.

It's really not difficult.

This doesn't sound like an online/offline transaction problem to me. You could see the transactions were showing up since your "available to spend" figure was decreasing.

If you spent more than it said you had available to spend, what did you expect was going to happen?

As others have said - you know the balance on your account at the end of your previous statement, and you know what you have spent since then. Surely you know how much money you will have left without relying on someone else to tell you? Or is it not your responsibility?

pmduk

A pen and paper would solve all of this and give you peace of mind at the same time.

bigk77irl

Hooloovoo wrote: »

The "balance" tells you the current balance.

The "available to spend" tells you what is available to spend including any pending transactions.

It's really not difficult.

This doesn't sound like an online/offline transaction problem to me. You could see the transactions were showing up since your "available to spend" figure was decreasing.

If you spent more than it said you had available to spend, what did you expect was going to happen?

As others have said - you know the balance on your account at the end of your previous statement, and you know what you have spent since then. Surely you know how much money you will have left without relying on someone else to tell you? Or is it not your responsibility?

That's the thing i had worked it out (including fees for o/d) and yet because the money we spent on sat on the card was showing on available to spend but not the current balance and has only gone through today it has pushed us over the o/d limit...this is my problem...you know you spent the money as available to spend has decreased but the transactions do not go through till a few days later...they got the computers and most banks are open 24/7 either through phone or internet so why not ditch the old archaic system of 5.5 days a week banking?

callum9999

bigk77irl wrote: »

That's the thing i had worked it out (including fees for o/d) and yet because the money we spent on sat on the card was showing on available to spend but not the current balance and has only gone through today it has pushed us over the o/d limit...this is my problem...you know you spent the money as available to spend has decreased but the transactions do not go through till a few days later...they got the computers and most banks are open 24/7 either through phone or internet so why not ditch the old archaic system of 5.5 days a week banking?

What? How could the money being taken out of your account on the Tuesday instead of the Saturday possibly result in you going over your O/D limit? If anything, it will mean that the bank saw you go over your O/D limit later than you actually did, saving you a few quid in fees...

You keep saying you "worked it out" and "knew what you spent" - clearly you didn't...

daveyjp

If this is a problem for you withdraw cash instead.

meer53

Get your balance.
Write this on a piece of paper.
When you spend something, deduct this amount from your balance - straight away.
Write the new balance down.
Don't forget to take into account any standing orders, direct debits or cheques you have written.

Do this and you won't be charged anything. Banks have no control over when a transaction will debit your account, it's your responsibility to make sure you have enough money to cover what you've spent.