Clearing of Debit Card payments to Credit Card Accounts

arthuritus

I have a credit card with Tesco, which uses RBS as it's bank.
The balance always gets paid off each month.
However we had a very high month of bills.
So I made payments to the card during the month, otherwise the Credit Limit would have been exceeded.
I always pay through the Tesco Credit Card online banking system and pay from my RBS Current A/C using my Debit Card with them.
Anyway, I noticed that 5 days after paying the amounts, that my balance outstanding was £350 and my Credit Card limit is £3500.
However, my available spending was only £150.
So I got in touch with Tesco, who said that it takes 6 days to clear a payment.
I find that incredible, especially as I transferred the money and the next day my credit card statement on line showed the money as being paid.
My question is, when you pay on line through RBS using the debit card, how does that take 6 days to clear? Especially as Tesco use RBS as well.

triple_choc_chip

Perhaps you should try it the other way around? I pay my Tesco card from my Nat West a/c online and it goes through as a faster payment.

I use my card for the points and make a payment every weekend which helps me budget. When my Tesco statement arrives, all the payments have the same dates as per my Nat West statement.

itsanne

I don't know if it's just Tesco, but I had an identical problem a couple of months ago. Full amount always paid by direct debit but major expenditure (new bathroom) in one month so money transferred in (from FirstDirect, not RBS). Transfer showed up but money available to spend didn't change. Despite phone calls, we didn't manage to get it sorted and used another credit card until the direct debit went in. We'd have made a fuss if it hadn't been a one off and we had other cards to use, but it does seem ridiculous.

arthuritus

Interesting. I thought they were supposed to clear money much quicker these days.

arthuritus

That's a good idea Triple Choc Chip. Just like you, I only use my Credit Card to earn the tesco points. I just make sure the balance is always cleared on time and it allows me to keep better control on cashflow.
I will do that from now on.

Thrugelmir

arthuritus wrote: »

My question is, when you pay on line through RBS using the debit card, how does that take 6 days to clear? Especially as Tesco use RBS as well.

In principle it's a safety net for the credit card lender against the funds remitted being retracted.