£220 missing from balance on account

greensalad

I use YNAB to track my spending on my current account.

This morning all was rosey. I had around £280 in the bank which had been budgeted for various things.

A large payment came out, about £130. No problem! I'd already tracked the spend in YNAB so I was expecting my balance to drop down to £154, as YNAB told me my balance would be.

Shock horror when I opened my account this evening to discover I am £70 OVERDRAWN. My balance has not just dropped down £132 like I expected, but £350!!

I'm now completely terrified. I don't know where the money I gone. I don't know how I'll get through the month at this rate. I just don't know where it's gone.

The £132 that left the account was part of a £200 purchase. The full amount didn't come out of the bank because some of the items in the order are not yet dispatched and only get charged when they are dispatched (in a few days). So there are still MORE payments to come out and NO money to pay them.

To make matters more confusing, while my 'available balance' shows as -£70, the amount next to the last transaction on the account reads:

Date | Payee | Amount | Balance
02/09/2015 | [company] | -£6.86 | £244.70

How come my balance shows as £244 here yet my account shows at -£70?! This is with Barclays. Is this a banking error?

colsten

Are there any transactions on your bank statement that you do not recognise?

If yes, you need to get on to Barclays straight away.

If no, it seems you forgot to register them in YNAB. If you have an agreed overdraft, you might be ok until you sorted the shortfall. If you don't, get on to Barclays now to get an overdraft sorted, or ask family/friends to lend you the money.

Any difference between your balance and your 'available balance' will be due to Barclays knowing of purchases that have been made with your card. If you are certain that you made no such purchases, get on to Barclays straight away.

greensalad

There are none that I don't recognise. The thing I don't understand is that next to the last transaction it says balance of £244? That isn't reflected in my balance.

I honestly cannot think of a bulk of transactions that large that I would have not registered. And those transactions aren't showing on my banking. Every single transaction on my banking list I recognise and have registered on YNAB.

I think I better give the bank a call

SnowTiger

greensalad wrote: »

To make matters more confusing, while my 'available balance' shows as -£70, the amount next to the last transaction on the account reads:

Date | Payee | Amount | Balance
02/09/2015 | J D WILLIAMS | -£6.86 | £244.70

How come my balance shows as £244 here yet my account shows at -£70?! This is with Barclays. Is this a banking error?

The difference between balance and available balance perhaps?

Balance is how much money is currently in the account. £244.70 it seems.

Available balance takes in to account pending transactions and amounts companies have put on hold, which is released after a few days.

SeduLOUs

Very strange. Have you written a cheque in the last few months and forgotten about it that someone has suddenly decided to take to the bank?

You sound like you're fairly on top of your transactions, so just wondering if it could be something a bit older?

greensalad

SnowTiger wrote: »

Balance is how much money is currently in the account. £244.70 it seems. Available balance takes in to account pending transactions and amounts companies have put on hold, which is released after a few days.

That's what I can't understand. I have one pending transaction for £63 that is due to go out, no way near enough to fill this huge gap.

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Very strange. Have you written a cheque in the last few months and forgotten about it that someone has suddenly decided to take to the bank?

Don't think I've written a cheque for years! In fact, I don't even have a chequebook for this specific account!

Going to get myself on telephone banking.

SeduLOUs

Bizarre indeed. Please let us know when you figure out what's happened!

Dobbibill

Have you paid in a cheque from someone else? This would show on your account balance but not available yet, if it's still waiting to clear.

hope you get it sorted.

NotRichAtAll

I don't know how I'll get through the month at this rate.

and its only the 2nd oh dear

greensalad

Right, partially solved though I'm still a little confused.

It sounds like the company have done something very weird on my bank.

So I did a massive order on their site for four people, which cost £202. The company have, and always have, taken out each individual item on the order as an individual transaction. No idea why they do this. They don't bill the full balance to your account, just on delivery-day they seem to withdraw per-item that has been sent.

A part order came up on my account yesterday because part of it was delivered. They charged £132 worth of the £202 order, with the other bits coming at a later date so not to be billed (one of the items will take 5 days to arrive).

BUT it sounds like the 'pending transaction' is still set for £202. At least, although I've lost £132 from my account already, there is still the full £202 pending balance. I'm rather peed off with them for doing this as they're essentially holding my money ransom.

I still don't understand where the full amount is coming from but he has assured me that there are only two transactions due on my account, £202 and £63, and I know what both those are I just assumed that £202 only had £70 left to withdraw (which really it does, but somehow the bank doesn't see that).

So I've been able to push some money from my savings intended for my credit card over into my current account. Hopefully it'll clear up. I'm still very worried. I've had some more income and I should have £450 odd part of which I was really excited to use to pay off a large chunk of my credit card balance.

So I guess I need to wait and see when they let go of the hold on my account

SeduLOUs

Oh wow. If it's an authorisation check it should just disappear in a couple of days but that's not exactly helpful and £200 is not a small amount of money.

I'd be having a bit of a shout at the JD Williams team and making sure you get an appropriate goodwill gesture as an apology for the situation they've put you in.

Also, I had a similar thing a while ago where a company took £500 from my account as expected but sent another pending £500 through wrongly which was going to cause a catastrophe at the time with some direct debits. I spoke to my bank and explained the situation and they allowed the direct debits to be paid despite technically not having available funds and without charging me. Worth knowing that the banks themselves can sometimes be pretty helpful with these things even when it's not their fault at all.