Santander - Trying to debit card and refused

Mancunian

Thanks all. It was a long fight last year and I gave up and never used them since.

Customer service from my current account with nationwide is now crap so looking at going back.

I'll get back on the case and post what I find.

Archi_Bald

OP, I would agree with daveyjp - in order to give you useful comments, we really need to know what your statements say about the charges.

Was is a brick & mortars shop, or an online shop you tried to buy from? Was it an instant purchase you tried to make, or would the retailer only charge your card at a later stage, e.g. upon delivery?

As you may know, charging a debit card is a two-stage process - 1) authorisation (will the bank pay the retailer?), and 2) actually taking the money. Normally, there is split seconds between step 1 and step 2, but sometimes it is days. When was your transaction declined? How much was the transaction for?

Also, we should ideally like to know what your balance was at the time you attempted the purchase, and at the time of decline, though you might not wish to share that information, or you might not know.

Archi_Bald

Mancunian wrote: »

Customer service from my current account with nationwide is now crap so looking at going back.

Why would you go back to Santander after they charged you wrongly, in your opinion? Plenty of other banks to choose from.

Though you would probably find issues with all of them. Some people just attract issues like light attracts flies.

Mancunian

Wow you guys go deep! Thanks but I don't think it's needed and wastes your time.

Found this latest charges PDF and seems that they class it as 'we refuse a payment because of insufficient funds' varying from account to account.

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?c=DocumentoGS&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1358033822211&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FDocumentoGS%2FDocumentoGSPreview

I will also secure message them and check and if they say I shouldn't be charged, try it!

PS. Was only buying lager in my local tesco express with my debit card.

Mancunian

Thank god for the ignore feature on here. Forgot the many idiots that inhabit now.

pmduk

Banks cover their costs, and more by these charges. It always make sense to know precisely what charges the account you are using may attract. I can see why you think it's deep, others would consider it sensible.

redcard

You haven't answered posts 5 or 6, and I think most people now think you just can't read your bank statement.

Mancunian

I'm old and never encountered this problem during my lifetime, often trying a debit card and being refused (have multiple accounts, swapping funds around)

You guys seemed to think this wasnt acceptable or fair- that's all I wanted to know- thanks.

I will investigate further and post my further findings to maybe help other people in the future.

Thx

Archi_Bald

Thanks for digging out the Santander charges document. So it says you will be charged on various accounts if "We refuse a payment from your account because there is not enough money in your account".

I have to admit I wasn't aware of this myself - mainly because I never go anywhere near zero on my current accounts.

The charges document sounds pretty unambiguous to me, and it is neither here nor there whether any other bank does the same (don't any of them?). No other bank pays 1, 2 or 3% cashback on Direct Debits, and very few other banks pay 3% interest on balances between £3K and £20K. Funny nobody seems to think Santander should scrap the cashback and interest.

Gromitt

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Thanks for digging out the Santander charges document. So it says you will be charged on various accounts if "We refuse a payment from your account because there is not enough money in your account".

I read that when I opened my Santander account, but I always assumed it was to do with automated payments such as DDs and SOs, where they would be referred to as "unpaid item fee".