£130 TFL penalty charge pending on my account. Not mine!

AHAR

Hi,
I noticed my available balance on my Nationwide current account was showing £130 less than I expected so called them to see if they could tell me what it was and they said it was a TFL penalty charge. Transport for London? It's definitely nothing to do with me.
Has anyone else had to deal with something like this? Nationwide say I should raise a VISA dispute if/when the amount is actually deducted. If I need to do this, is it best to first contact Nationwide or the place that took the money?
Thanks

BTW I was impressed by how quickly I got through to Nationwide and had my query answered. Freephone too.:T

cifpower

Can you not contact TFL? Also, when the transaction shows do a chargeback by contacting Nationwide.

grumbler

cifpower wrote: »

Also, when the transaction shows do a chargeback by contacting Nationwide.

"Chargeback" is for authorised transactions and goods/services not delivered.

In this case it's an unauthorised transaction.

agrinnall

I'm doubtful if it is Transport for London, if you're certain you couldn't have incurred a penalty with them then I'm not sure how they could have the necessary information to debit your account. There are other organisations that use TFL, such as:

http://www.tfl-group.com/

http://www.tyronefabrication.co.uk/

http://www.tflracing.co.uk/

AHAR

£130 looks like an amount Transport for London charge for congestion charge/red route etc. penalties if not paid within 14 days. They'll take the money based on the card details given by the real offender I guess? Either they've intentionally or accidentally been given or recorded incorrectly?
Their phone numbers appear to be closed today and I guess they'll need the PCN reference to look into it anyway. I'll see whether the transaction actually posts or not and take it from there.

System

It's still 'charged back' by the card issuer even if fraud.

grumbler wrote: »

"Chargeback" is for authorised transactions and goods/services not delivered.

In this case it's an unauthorised transaction.

fedoreat43o

nice find...

AHAR

It was Transport for London.
I've raised a dispute via Nationwide. They'd already blocked my card but I won't be able to unblock it until one of their systems comes back after maintenance later.

AHAR

Well, the disputed £130 has gone back into my account today and they're sending a new card to replace my compromised one. From what they said on the phone, the purchase of mobile phone credit in Denmark was what seems to have triggered the fraud system at Nationwide.
Impossible to know where the crims got the details from I guess.

Full marks to Nationwide for making dealing with this as painless as can be reasonably be hoped for.
Still, I'm off to open a second current account somewhere to have as a backup.

butterflymum

AHAR wrote: »

Still, I'm off to open a second current account somewhere to have as a backup.

Sensible decision to have more than one current account (or even a savings account, at a different bank, with a cash card that would at least easily allow you to access some funds as a temporary measure) given what you have just experienced and/or the amount of 'technical glitches' that can occur nowadays with banking systems.