Why have I gone overdrawn on a solo account?

smithja

Yep, thats right. They also cannot charge you if they were to return it (a SOLO card transaction, or Electron) unpaid, like they can for other transactions type, because procedure was not followed and you did follow instructions correctly. So either way you will get your money back. I am sure somewhere in the T&C's it will says you must have the avaiable fund to make a SOLO card transaction otherwise the bank will not authorise them, and if they advertise (which they do), that you cannot go overdrawn with the card it is then a breach of laws relating to advertising, unless they bounce the payment or take the loss themselves. James

molerat

Was it the Solo transaction that actually took you over the limit or that the solo transaction was taken earlier than you expected and then a DD or other payment took you over (which I think may be the case)

natweststaffmember

They can charge you if they pay it though.

smithja

They can, but then you can challenge the transaction at which point someone will be at fault other than the customer. It was not properly authorised in accordance with SOLO acceptance procedure, it was not submitted within the prescribed time limit, it was not deducted from the avaialbe balance allowing the customer to overdraw their account. The bank advertised you cannot go overdraw with the card. All of them let the customer get the charge back. James I have just realised you might have been talking about the DD not the SOLO transaction, that is obviously a different matter, you are required to have the avaialble funds to pay it when presented.

m0nby

Hi All been reading this thread with great interest as over the weekend £315 worth of charges made against my solo card appeared on my account from transactions dated in Oct & Nov 2007 all the same merchant.

Upshot being that I am now over £150 overdrawn and the bank have basically said "Screw you" as the retailer has 6 months to claim the money once they have it authorised - the money was there at the time!!.

I deliberately have an account that is not supposed to be able to let me go overdrawn and I have been micro managing things to ensure that doesn't happen. I am about to call the Nastywest Customer service unit expecting them to say exactly the same thing ie "Tough !!!!!!".

Any advice greatfully recieved.
:mad:

DaisyFlower

m0nby wrote: »

Hi All been reading this thread with great interest as over the weekend £315 worth of charges made against my solo card appeared on my account from transactions dated in Oct & Nov 2007 all the same merchant.

Upshot being that I am now over £150 overdrawn and the bank have basically said "Screw you" as the retailer has 6 months to claim the money once they have it authorised - the money was there at the time!!.

I deliberately have an account that is not supposed to be able to let me go overdrawn and I have been micro managing things to ensure that doesn't happen. I am about to call the Nastywest Customer service unit expecting them to say exactly the same thing ie "Tough !!!!!!".

Any advice greatfully recieved.
:mad:

If you had been managing your account so well, did you not notice the payments hadnt appeared or that your balance was higher than expected?

setmefree

when a debit card transaction is processed, each indivudial company have a floor limit in place. if a transaction is processed for an amount under this limit then the payment is immediately accepted. a referral is not made to us and we therefore do not have the opportunity to decline the transaction when there are insufficient funds in the account.

When a Visa Electron card is used, all retailers should have a nil floor limit set in place. in theory, this should mean that every transaction is reffered to us for authority. however, some companies have set a higher floor limit, which can result in transactions being authorised even though there are insufficient funds in the account.
Unfortunately, we cannot control individual retailers floor limits. ultimately, it is the individual customers responsibility to manage the transactions on their account.

This i received in writing from the Directors office of a major Bank

smithja

Hi.

Setmefree your bank was fobbing you of if that is what they told you.

Here is a link to a guide to using Natwest Streamline, NatWest's own merchant service.

http://www.streamline.com/Already_a_customer/News/Interface/downloads/int_may_00.pdf

It states this on the 3rd page

"

All terminals should have their phone line available 24 hours a day. This is
especially true of terminals where the daily transactions are collected by
us, or in some cases third parties, via the phone line after your operating
hours. This procedure is known as polling.
If daily polling is delayed, which could be down to a
number of reasons, there is an increased danger of the
Bank having to return a payment to you unpaid. This is
because the transactions have to be processed within certain timescales
under the Card Scheme rules. This will mean that you will not be paid for
the goods or services you have provided. This loss could have a

significant effect on your business."

I think a SOLO transaction only has 3 working days, after that it can be returned and Visa Electron is not far off. As soon as the authorisation drops off the bank can bounce it.

M0nby, I would get back on to NatWest and quote their own merchant rules at them. One of two things should happen, they should bounce the payment and remove any charges, if it was the retailers fault for submitting late, or if it has been sitting around in the banks computer system they just did not debit your account they need to take the loss.

Hope this is of some help.

James

setmefree

Mmm thanks for that info, i will now go direct to the Managing Director as the CEO answered my question on his behalf, and i have this in writing

smithja

I can't tell if you are being nice or sarcastic.

Was it an Electron transaction that they paid?

I know Abbey National used to bounce them all the time, I know because they issued the cards before every retailer's terminal could tell the difference between Visa Electron and a Visa Card. It is still the case with what was British Rail, the machines ticket collectors have will happily accept Electron, but the collector is told not to accept the cards and it used to be the same with the old machines in ticket offices I think called APTIS or something like that (the grey ones they dropped the tickets in to, they had no connection to the bank) British Rail and the new train companies who still use them (if there are any left) have a floor limit of £99.99.

James