Online shopping transaction failed, but over £2k deducted from my accounts

Star999

Hi all
I tried to place an online order today with my debit for just under £400.
The order failed and I was advised to call my bank.
So I thought I'll try my credit card which I did but this failed to.
So I decided to ring my bank who provide both the credit and debit card.
Bank advised they couldn't see any attempted transactions and advised me to call the merchant.

Rang the merchant who said its an issue with my bank so to ring them.
Rang my bank back and was told to reset my Verfied by Visa password which they did and then to try again.
So did this and tried again but failed again. This time a number came up on screen for my bank.
Rang the bank and got through to their fraud team who did a few security checks then okayed the account. Was told to try completing the transaction in a few minutes.

Tried again and failed again.
So rang the merchants again and they again said to speak to my bank.
Called my bank and they said there's no problems with my account or card and it should be working. They said it must be an issue with the merchant.

So decided to try a debit card with a different bank. Again it failed.

I then got an automated from the first bank for the first debit card re recent activity on my account and that it was me that did these.
So I confirmed yes.

I logged into my first account and noticed my available balance had dropped my £2k. Rang the bank and was told 5 payments had been authorised and to cancel I need to contact the merchant as they!couldn't cancel the payments. They gave me the auth codes for the transactions.

Rang the merchants and was told the money will be a held in a holding account by the bank, and it will take about 5 days for it to be returned to me. He confirmed no orders had been completed.

I then checked my second debit account and noticed £350 was missing from that account.

Can anyone advise how I get this money back as both the bank and merchant are blaming each other.

Many thanks and sorry about the long post.

MPH80

Has it gone from available balance or actually from the balance?

stclair

The merchants bank need to notify your bank they will be not completing the transaction.

If you do nothing the funds will become available automatically after 5-7 working days depending who you bank with.

Depends how desperate you need the money.

InsideInsurance

Sounds like your bank doesnt know what its doing and it is they that hold all the power in this situation.

By the sounds of it all the transactions have now been authorised and so the money has been ringfenced but only one transaction has actually gone through. The merchant can attempt to ask for the other authorisations to be cancelled thus releasing the money to you earlier but it is ultimately up to your bank if they decide to do this or not. As has been said it should naturally sort itself out over time anyway.

Ultimately the merchant hasnt done anything wrong as it was your bank that blocked the transactions and then authorised them all. You are now having to ask them to do additional work because of the advice given to you by your bank

rb10

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Sounds like your bank doesnt know what its doing and it is they that hold all the power in this situation.

By the sounds of it all the transactions have now been authorised and so the money has been ringfenced but only one transaction has actually gone through. The merchant can attempt to ask for the other authorisations to be cancelled thus releasing the money to you earlier but it is ultimately up to your bank if they decide to do this or not. As has been said it should naturally sort itself out over time anyway.

Ultimately the merchant hasnt done anything wrong as it was your bank that blocked the transactions and then authorised them all. You are now having to ask them to do additional work because of the advice given to you by your bank

When the transactions failed on three different cards from two different banks, I think it's the retailer's bank that's at fault here.

The OP's bank cannot cancel the authorisations just on the OP's word. That instruction has to come from the retailer.

Star999

MPH80 wrote: »

Has it gone from available balance or actually from the balance?

It's my available balance that has reduced. No transactions can be seen on the statement.

brendon

This is quite a common problem. The way it works, is that a retailer will first send a authorisation request to the bank, which gives them an authorisation code. Once the transaction is confirmed by the retailer, they sent a payment request to the bank, using the previous authorisation code they obtained. In a web transaction, this should happen in the space of 5 seconds. Obviously something has happened between obtaining the authorisation and requesting payment. The fact that the payment isn't showing on the retailers system probably means the payment request was never sent. The authorisations should drop off in 5 days or so.

Star999

stclair wrote: »

The merchants bank need to notify your bank they will be not completing the transaction.

If you do nothing the funds will become available automatically after 5-7 working days depending who you bank with.

Depends how desperate you need the money.

The merchant said they can't do anything.

I don't need the money but I have an agreed overdraft on my account for £900, and due to these failed transactions, it was saying the available balance is £700. The first £100 of my overdraft is free and anything above that has interest charged.

My main concern is I have a mortgage application pending and I'm worried it will show on my credit file I've had to use my overdraft when I've not used it for at least 3 years.
So to avoid to any issues, I've had to transfer £1k from my ISA to my curren account to cover any direct debits I may have going out and to avoid usage of the overdraft.

Star999

I tried my credit card about three times I think. Will I be charged on my credit card?
As I don't want my balance to be high which my mortgage lender will see when they do the second credit check just before completion.
My cc balance was £300, but with these transactions it will be about £1.5k and my credit limit is £2.2k.

rb10

Star999 wrote: »

The merchant said they can't do anything.

The merchant was wrong. But anyway...

Star999 wrote: »

I don't need the money but I have an agreed overdraft on my account for £900, and due to these failed transactions, it was saying the available balance is £700. The first £100 of my overdraft is free and anything above that has interest charged.

My main concern is I have a mortgage application pending and I'm worried it will show on my credit file I've had to use my overdraft when I've not used it for at least 3 years.
So to avoid to any issues, I've had to transfer £1k from my ISA to my curren account to cover any direct debits I may have going out and to avoid usage of the overdraft.

In terms of when interest is charged, and what is reported to the credit reference agencies (and so what your potential mortgage provider can see), it's just based on the Account Balance. As long as the transactions don't actually show up as a row on your statement, your Account Balance will not be affected by this.

Your Available Balance isn't used for interest charging purposes, and is just the amount that the bank is currently willing to let you spend.

It's not a problem for your Available Balance to go all the way down to nothing. You won't be charged, provided your Account Balance remains above zero.

rb10

Star999 wrote: »

I tried my credit card about three times I think. Will I be charged on my credit card?
As I don't want my balance to be high which my mortgage lender will see when they do the second credit check just before completion.
My cc balance was £300, but with these transactions it will be about £1.5k and my credit limit is £2.2k.

No, like with the current account, it's just an authorisation and won't (shouldn't!) actually go onto your balance.

Your mortgage lender will only see your actual CC balance (£300), and not the authorisations.

(Although even if you did have an actual balance of £1.5k, a mortgage lender is unlikely to have a problem with that, you'd be nowhere near your limit and that's not a massive amount of debt to have).