HSBC - how long do they have to take a card transaction from your account?

Bluesy2shoes

HI there,

I paid for some debit card transactions nearly 7 months ago now and the company did not take the money from my account or even reserve the funds from my account. They have all just come out of my account on Monday with no warning whatsoever and the money was never even reserved so I couldn't spend it.

Does anyone know how long a company has to reserve the funds/take the funds from your account for a debit card purchase? As the money was not in my account so I am now hugely overdrawn

SuperAllyB

If you knew that the money hadn't been taken, why wasn't it still in your account?

I believe companies are supposed to advise before taking payment after a certain length of time (thought 6 months but maybe wrong) but the debt still stands and even if you managed to get this payment reversed by a technicality you would have to find the money elsewhere to pay.

colsten

Debts are collectable for up to 6 years. I am not aware that you have to be told when the money will be taken from your account once you have given your authorisation that it can be taken.

It is highly unlikely the bank would know when the purchase was made. They will process the debit request when the retailer asks for it.

It is neither the bank's nor the retailer's fault if you go overdrawn as a result of a purchase you have made.

Bluesy2shoes

Thanks - I didn't realise it hadn't been taken until too late. I was wondering if there was a cut-off period or some other technicality.

p00hsticks

If your bank don't see the transaction appear within about a week to ten days of having first seen the authorisation request, then they'll release any money they've reserved for it bakc to your available balance (as for all they know the transaction many never have proceeded - they can't sensibly reserve the amonut for an indefinite period).

When I worked in credit card settlement processing around ten years ago, we'd let payments up to eleven months old be processed through the system, but I've seen people more recently make reference to six months - not sure if this is a new thing (or possibly a different processors rules). Longer than this and there would have to be some manual intervention to process the payment request, which may well have involved recontacting the cardholder via the issuing bank.

As other OPs have said, the merchant has up to six years to present the payment request before it is statute barred

But the bottom line is that it's really up to you to make sure that there is money in your account to cover any debit card payments made, by noting any transactions as they occur and checking against your bank statemnt that they have been cleared.

agrinnall

If you're going to be hit with o/d charges, particularly if it's unauthorised, I think it would be worth a call to your bank to explain the length of time that has passed since you did the transaction, they may be able to confirm whether there is anything that makes the 6 month rule official (it's often mentioned here, I wondered if it came in with the Payment Services Directives but I haven't been able to confirm that) in which case you could ask the company to refund charges or perhaps the bank would waive them.

Thrugelmir

Bluesy2shoes wrote: »

I paid for some debit card transactions nearly 7 months ago now and the company did not take the money from my account or even reserve the funds from my account. (

What form did the purchase take? Presumably you were aware that you hadn't paid for the goods or services. Were you just hoping that the Company had forgotten to charge you.

anoncol

Who is the company?

Thrugelmir

agrinnall wrote: »

they may be able to confirm whether there is anything that makes the 6 month rule official

There's no such thing. As a cheque is a contract to pay. To bounce it in any form is technically breach of contract. So not up to the banks to decide.

YorkshireBoy

agrinnall wrote: »

...they may be able to confirm whether there is anything that makes the 6 month rule official (it's often mentioned here, I wondered if it came in with the Payment Services Directives but I haven't been able to confirm that)

A quick google throws up, amongst other references...

http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/chargeback-management-guidelines-for-visa-merchants.pdf (see page 64).

I believe the Visa Europe system uses the same 'rules'?

agrinnall

Thanks YB, page 70 for anyone who wants to look for themselves:

...the transaction was processed more than 180 calendar days from the transaction date.