Credit card payment taken twice?!

kem1

Wasn't sure where to post this as may be more of a banking question, but hoping somebody might have some advice!

To cut a long story short, we've recently had difficulty paying our Marbles credit card off - not financial problems, technical ones whereby the payment kept getting rejected online and over the phone. Cue lots of phone calls backwards and forwards from Marbles and the Halifax to find out why.

Tried again yesterday (after being advised to by Marbles), payment rejected online. Rang them up, they confirmed it hadn't gone through, tried again over the phone, same thing. Advised us to call them back again tomorrow.

Off we go shopping, card gets declined in a shop. Thankfully had the cash to pay for the stuff. Get home, log in to online banking, to find that TWO payments have been taken by Marbles and we have zero money in our account!! Upshot is £1050 has been taken that shouldn't have been. Unfortunately Marbles customer services were closed by this time, so I'll be on the phone to them tomorrow morning - but our rent is due to go out on Monday! Does anybody know if it's possible for them to return the money straight to our account when I ring them in the morning? Fuming!!

WillyWonga

The problem we face here is that Marbles isn't an off shoot of a major bank so getting a refund back in time will be slow. If it was by direct debit you could have claimed back via the direct debit indemnity with Halifax which would be instant refund. Speak to Halifax and see if you can recall the payment as not authorised. Worth a shot, as Marbles might refund you on Monday but might be Wednesday before it hits your account. Plus if you still have a balance on the card after this double payment or if it clears it they could be funny and not refund it saying the onus was on you to make payments correctly albeit hiding the blame from themselves. Speak to Halifax tonight and Marbles in the morning. Marbles will be able to refund straight if pushed but will claim the finance team wont be in till Monday blah blah blah.

If the rent is due out on Monday by direct debit then best advice is to cancel the DD now. This way you wont get charged for a failed DD, explain to landlord problem with bank and money would be sorted by midweek. Enough time for refund to go through and reset DD.

boo_star

Did they actually take the payment twice or is this a case of an "authorisation hold"?

If it's the latter you may find Halifax more accommodating in regard to removing the hold to allow other payments to go out but if Marbles do eventually take both amounts you'll be liable for bank charges. You'd need to claim those back from whoever screwed up.