Are Lloyds trying to fob me off?

purplebiro

Checked my internet banking today and it listed my available balance as nil, even though the statement page showed a balance of £70, which I subsequently increased by transferring £50 from another account in a panic. I'm not expecting any DDs etc to go out this week so I called Lloyds to find out what's going on since I had about £1.30 in my purse and no dinner!!

They said "Oh you have a payment allocated as going out to Budget car hire for £141". I pointed out that according to my statement online that went out yesterday and is accounted for in my balance of £120. They then said that becuase I had paid for the car hire on Saturday AM with the debit card for this account my card would still stay "blocked off" for £141.00 until Wednesday AM, despite the fact that that amount had clearly already been paid.

Is this normal? I made the poor Lloyds girl assure me about three times that I wasn't going to go over my overdraft limit and that I would be able to draw money tomorrow moring and she did but is this, not to put too finer point on it, bullsh1t?;)

dankes

purplebiro wrote: »

They then said that becuase I had paid for the car hire on Saturday AM with the debit card for this account my card would still stay "blocked off" for £141.00 until Wednesday AM, despite the fact that that amount had clearly already been paid.

Is this normal?

I've had this with my visa debit card - it's a pain in the behind, especially if you give the debit card number just to hold something but never actually use it to pay for it.

Like with a hotel reservation - I always pay cash, but because the hotel need to verify the card is valid, the amount is then 'blocked off' until the bill is settled. Then it's released, which can take up to 10 days. So, would be cautious if I was you about going overdrawn as the money may well not be 'released' back in time.
xx