Petrol station bank 'holdng' payment

boo_star

Peter333 wrote: »

Er excuse me, they have a RIGHT to 'spout off!' And it's not 'TOSH' that the amount is taken straight away! It IS. Call it being 'earmarked' if you like, but you still CANNOT GET AT THE MONEY. So if you spend £50; you have are blocked from using £100, if there's a 'ghost transaction.' So as you cannot get at it; it's the same as them having taken it.

And it's the first I have heard of it that banks can put the money back in immediately.

The issue isn't the bank, it's the retailer.

The retailer absolutely can get the transaction cancelled, they just can't be bothered. I suppose in part because its not as simple as pressing a button, they need to phone their merchant provider.

The bank authorised the transaction, they don't know that it subsequently got lost in the ether so as far as they're concerned, it will debit soon.

And regarding your last sentence, yes they can cancel the authorisation hold, they can't stop the money being debited though. That said general CS won't have the ability to do it and in my experience (working in a bank with the ability to do it), very few will unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Armorica

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

To all posters who spouted off that debits are taken from their accounts immediately. - it's tosh! Only cash withdrawals at ATM's are debited straightaway - retail transactions are taken in most cases 2-3 working days later.
(Money is earmarked immediately but not debited.)

Yeah; that's not correct.

Typically, 'online' transactions i.e. those that are authorised by your bank may be debited by your bank (and they later reconcile against the merchant files).

Off-line transactions - those that don't seek authorisation or are authorised according to an automated rule - your bank won't know about so can only apply when they receive merchant files.

This can vary by bank and by merchant.

BMN

Armorica wrote: »

Yeah; that's not correct.

Typically, 'online' transactions i.e. those that are authorised by your bank may be debited by your bank (and they later reconcile against the merchant files).

Off-line transactions - those that don't seek authorisation or are authorised according to an automated rule - your bank won't know about so can only apply when they receive merchant files.

This can vary by bank and by merchant.

It is correct. Online transactions are not debited as part of the authorisation process - only the available balance is affected at first. Later on the transaction will actually debit - where the account balance will be affected and the transaction will actually appear as a line on your statement.