Contactless Payments dont show up in available balance!!!

scorti

I have had an issue with HSBC (business ac but should not make any difference for domestic) as follows:

Rang yesterday to see why A/C was not showing all payments and adviser confirmed that all debit card payments should show on my 'available balance'.

Account now overdrawn by £13 they charge me a daily ammont for going overdrawn

phoned back and after some digging found the offending payment (Coop £14 contactlees payment)

HSBC confirmed thta these payments do not show up in available balance!

This means there re serious disadvantages to using this form of payment and has probably ended up with a lot of people paying a lot of overdraft charges.

The adviser form yesterday did not know avbout the contactless issue OR DID KNOW and they are keeping this under wraps. The adviser today only admitted to the contactless isue after I queried which exact paymenthad caused the issue. No mentin of 'it may be a contacless payment'.

I believe the banks have a serious issue here and may be liable for refund of a great deal of charges as this does not appear to be a transarent process.

The adviser made refferece to the guide sent out wit hthe contactless card (and offerd to send e a copy which I should receive shortly). When pressed on where the guide specifically stated 'contactless payments may not apprear in your available balance......' I was palmed off with 'I dont have time to find the specific content.

My belief is that thsi guide will not contain any reference to a change of conditions but will see when I have reviewed the leaflet.

The scale of this is probably quite large in relation to charges. I appreciate thta it is the account golder's responsibility to manage thier account, but if the bank clearly states 'your balance is showing all payments made on your debit card in the available balance', some (probably a fair number, especialy those on low incomes) customers are bound to fall foul of this and go overdrawn, incurring charges.

My point is that the banks are profitting from this change in service and that the change is determental to the customer.

I recommend those on a tight budget DO NOT USE CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS!

eskbanker

Isn't this more of an online/offline issue than contactless per se? In other words, if some or all contactless payments are processed without online authorisation then HSBC won't actually know about them until the retailer submits them for settlement....

bengal-stripe

scorti wrote: »

phoned back and after some digging found the offending payment (Coop £14 contactlees payment)

Contact-less payments will not show on your 'available balance' as there is no authorisation necessary at purchase. The first your bank will know about the debit, will be when the transaction is presented for payment.

Yes, if you cannot keep track of your spending and run a low balance on the account, you better avoid contact-less. (Same thing can apply with an ordinary debit transaction, as frequently shops have 'floor-limits' and do not need to apply for authorisation if the amount due is below that limit.

dr_adidas01

So your blaming the bank for your own inability to keep track of the money you spent?

I make contactless payments all the time and have been aware that they don't appear on my online banking straight away. It can take up to 3 days for a contactless payment to show as being paid.

The only serious disadvantage of this type of payment to you is that you can't manage to leave money in your account to cover the payment making yourself overdrawn.

Its up to you to be aware of what your spending and how much you have in your account and budget accordingly.

From what I can see and how many other banks operate their contactless cards, HSBC have done nothing wrong at all.

System

These issues crop up every few months.

If you're running close to zero (or your overdraft limit) use cash or a credit card!

Archi_Bald

Too many people think the available balance showing in their current account is equal to the money they have available to spend.

I wonder whether there is a MSE article that addresses this misconception?

101problems

scorti wrote: »

I have had an issue with HSBC (business ac but should not make any difference for domestic) as follows:

I recommend those on a tight budget DO NOT USE CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS!

is the only thing of note in this post but should read DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD!

Lokolo

To be fair, I am with the OP on this. I tend to use my available balance to know how much I have in my account. Obviously I have an idea approximately, but if I have £100 showing but £80 in available I can then think "Oh yes I spent £8 in M&S and £12 in Next", but with contactless you cannot do that.

However, the others are correct in saying HSBC can't do anything. Unless they are told about the pending payment, they can't show it on your account.

dr_adidas01

Lokolo wrote: »

To be fair, I am with the OP on this. I tend to use my available balance to know how much I have in my account. Obviously I have an idea approximately, but if I have £100 showing but £80 in available I can then think "Oh yes I spent £8 in M&S and £12 in Next", but with contactless you cannot do that.

However, the others are correct in saying HSBC can't do anything. Unless they are told about the pending payment, they can't show it on your account.

So you mean to tell me you can't work out what you have spent when you have paid by contactless?

Don't you keep the receipts for items you have purchased?

I can keep track of all the items I have purchase even ones I have paid via contactless, then again I remember the days there was no internet banking and you had to keep a note of what your bank balance was and what you had purchased.

Seems these days people don't want to take responsibility for what they spend and expect the banks to all the work for them.

SeduLOUs

The person in the best position to know what has been spent from your bank account at any moment in time is you.

Take responsibility.

Archi_Bald

Lokolo wrote: »

To be fair, I am with the OP on this. I tend to use my available balance to know how much I have in my account. Obviously I have an idea approximately, but if I have £100 showing but £80 in available I can then think "Oh yes I spent £8 in M&S and £12 in Next", but with contactless you cannot do that.

However, the others are correct in saying HSBC can't do anything. Unless they are told about the pending payment, they can't show it on your account.

It is nothing whatsoever to do with contactless. Any spend on your debit card might not get reflected on your available balance for several days, or even several weeks in exceptional cases.

If you are relying on what shows on your bank account as your available balance, you might be in for a nasty surprise, and it's entirely your own fault if you get into an overdraft as a result of not keeping track of how much you have spent (and what will come off your account overnight for DDs, SOs, CPAs).

The only way to know your real available balance is to keep a record yourself. E.g. by using one of the budgeting apps (top end of using technology), or pen and paper (bottom end of using technology), or something in between, like notepad on your phone.