Someone help please. Santander pending debit card payments

Mart34

Hi Guys,

I checked my 123 account balance early this morning finding it was -£94.74, I got straight on the phone to find out why. As I'm careful when using my debit card. Every week when my wage hits, I pay the bills I need to pay and the rest is mine.

After checking the account yesterday I was £1.60 in credit, (I took £40 out at the cash machine) and all the bank are telling me is that the reason I'm overdrawn is because of pending debit card payments, but I'm always thought when using a debit card the amount you pay for with the card almost immediately deducts from the account 'available balance' day, night and bank holiday, apart from when you use payatpump petrol stations I do use these but these payments are showing on my statement and are cleared.

Can someone shed some light? I've never ever had any issues with pending payments on debit card payments as always thought the amount immediately deducts from the available balance, but doesn't deduct from account balance

Thanks in advance for any advice.

agrinnall

Unfortunately you thought wrong, there are many payments that will not show up immediately - I'm still waiting for one that was done last April to appear. The only way to keep track of your balance is to do it yourself by making a record of all transactions as soon as possible after you do them.

colsten

Payments only register with your bank once the Retailer has notified the bank od a purchase. Many transactions, such as contactless payments and other low purchase amounts, can take several days before the bank knows about them.

The only way to be certain how much you can spend is by keeping your own record.

Mart34

Think I'm going to start keeping a record. I've never ever had this problem in the many many years of paying for items by debit card. I always thought when you insert your card into the card reader it's like withdrawing money from the cash machine. Reason being, when you try to purchase something and your bank balance has insufficient funds your card is declined.

Mart34

Got to the bottom of the fact my account was -92.74 after kicking up a stink with the bank. They investigated it to find when my rent was paid by debit card a tech glitch at the bank meant a duplicate payment was made and the 2nd payment had been placed in a holding account.

Huge sy of relief after I was told it was a mistake by the bank and I wasn't going to be charged any fee's

securityguy

Mart34 wrote: »

when you try to purchase something and your bank balance has insufficient funds your card is declined.

No, it _might_ be declined. It depends on the precise nature of the relationship between the merchant and their bank as to whether they have to do online verification and where the risk lies.

A simple example is contactless payment on the underground in London. TfL aggregate your journeys during the day, apply any capping, and then make a single transaction at the end of the day. You can travel as much as you like with a £0.01 balance in your account and at the end of the day you'll be debited for a day travelcard, which will make you overdrawn, authorised or not.

Oblivion

Mart34 wrote: »

Got to the bottom of the fact my account was -92.74 after kicking up a stink with the bank. They investigated it to find when my rent was paid by debit card a tech glitch at the bank meant a duplicate payment was made and the 2nd payment had been placed in a holding account.

Huge sy of relief after I was told it was a mistake by the bank and I wasn't going to be charged any fee's

If that happened to me I would be on to the bank requesting financial compensation for the stress I had been put through.

20aday

This depends if you have an iPhone or not (and it's a shame it's not on more mobile OS platforms):

Santander's Spendlytics app.

You log in and can track your Visa Debit card purchases that way (including transactions charged to your account but not yet processed).

I don't have a Santander bank account anymore but with the 123 credit card at the bottom of the recent transactions list you can see pending payments.

Is it possible to do that with their current accounts?

Anthorn

The difference has been with online or offline cards. With online cards usually marked on the card, "electronic use only" but not always, the debit comes off the card immediately because the terminal is in contact with the bank and then confirmed when the payment is cashed in. With offline cards we have to wait until debits are cashed in, usually at the end of the day but it can take several days. All depends on when the retailer does it.

But I wonder whether the distinction exists any more. In my experience cards are online when the terminal is online and offline when the terminal is offline.

20aday

Anthorn wrote: »

The difference has been with online or offline cards. With online cards usually marked on the card, "electronic use only" but not always, the debit comes off the card immediately because the terminal is in contact with the bank and then confirmed when the payment is cashed in. With offline cards we have to wait until debits are cashed in, usually at the end of the day but it can take several days. All depends on when the retailer does it.

But I wonder whether the distinction exists any more. In my experience cards are online when the terminal is online and offline when the terminal is offline.

Online only Debit cards still exist (if that's the point you're raising) as I work in a petrol station and certain cards (especially from RBS & NtWest) won't work outside as those pump terminals are "offline".