Contactless Payments dont show up in available balance!!!

Herbalus

billbennett wrote: »

Many places don't give a receipt for contactless payments by default.

Are you sure?

Apart from places such as tube and bus, I would've thought that every place gave a receipt. Shops particularly. I've always had a receipt.

stclair

Herbalus wrote: »

Are you sure?

Apart from places such as tube and bus, I would've thought that every place gave a receipt. Shops particularly. I've always had a receipt.

My mate manages a pub and if a customer pays by contacless the machines does not issue a receipt for the customer. He has to print of a duplicate of the one that goes in the till.

System

Ive never had a receipt for a contactless payment.

dr_adidas01

Judi wrote: »

Ive never had a receipt for a contactless payment.

Strange that I always get one when making contactless payments!!

leyley34

Personally I don't use contactless but have to say that I still have to know what I've spent as my available balance isn't always correct due to the fact I get my petrol from asda pay at the pumps and they only autho £1 when you get your petrol and when shopping at Aldi the amount is never removed from balance until it is actually paid usually a couple of days after the transaction. So like others have said its not just contactless and you should keep a note of what you spend.

tripled

If you need your bank to be up to date on transactions, then use a fully-authorised card. These are often issued with basic bank accounts and will likely not have contactless on them. They used to be known as Electron (now part of Visa Debit) and Solo (now part of Mastercard Debit).

Having said that, although that will make your available balance more accurate, you should still note that your available balance is only a guide. There are also some disadvantages, such as the cards not working in many "offline only" terminals (not common but generally found where there isn't a reliable connection, such as on trains and planes).

mgdavid

billbennett wrote: »

Many places don't give a receipt....... .

they have to; Ed Balls-up says so

reclusive46

stclair wrote: »

My mate manages a pub and if a customer pays by contacless the machines does not issue a receipt for the customer. He has to print of a duplicate of the one that goes in the till.

Thats hardly challenging though, you just press the menu key before pressing enter and its prints out another one. Some merchants don't do this though and go into the menu and manually select the transaction to print the last one.

iainUK

I came across this page while googling to try to find out about how long it takes contactless payments to show on the account, since I've 2 from over a week ago and thought they might have come off my available balance sooner.

I'm really surprised at the unfair replies to the OP. Of course it is understandable that the bank is not aware of the transaction if the payment was made offline, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't make it clear to customers.

Halifax, for example, show all pending debit card transactions instantly in a seperate section and they immediately come off your available balance. There is nothing anywhere to indicate that it might take roughly a day, a few days, a week, or more for a contactless payment to show in this way.

In fact I have not been able to find anything anywhere that gives any indication as to when contactless payments might be debited or why there might be a delay. It's a fair think for a customer to want to know.

Clearly a lot of people here just think that anyone who doesn't fully understand contactless is stupid so I don't expect much agreement, but I just think the banks ought to be a bit clearer. Nobody is suggesting they somehow show payments which were authorised offline so it's pointless stating the obvious that that's impossible.

iainUK

Herbalus wrote: »

The banks can't know that a contactless transaction has gone through until the retailer tells them! That is not always instant and can take a few days.

To be fair, I think that all the OP wants is for the banks to tell us this.

There is nothing anyway, not in any of the leaflets, websites, FAQs, to say that contactless payments take longer to show, maybe 3-7 days, nothing that even remotely hints at it at all. And the bank staff don't know either.

I think it is fair that, without this information, customers might assume that their contactless payment is included in 'pending debit card transactions' just like a normal debit card payment. Customers don't know about online and offline payments unless they are told.

I agree with the OP that the information is not there and needs to be clearer. I also don't think it's unfair to speculate on the fact that banks may well be benefitting from this confusion.