How do pending transactions work?

civil12345

Hi, I wanted to dispute some transactions that have just gone out of my account as I don't recognise them. They were from yesterday and the day before and are showing on my account as pending transactions. I thought it would have been easier to dispute (stop?) the transactions as they are pending but I was told I need to wait for the money to be fully taken then raise a dispute. Does that sound right? It's with TSB.

boo_star

civil12345 wrote: »

Hi, I wanted to dispute some transactions that have just gone out of my account as I don't recognise them. They were from yesterday and the day before and are showing on my account as pending transactions. I thought it would have been easier to dispute (stop?) the transactions as they are pending but I was told I need to wait for the money to be fully taken then raise a dispute. Does that sound right? It's with TSB.

It sounds about right, yes.

They may not debit your account, so until they do, the bank won't bother investigating them. A pending transaction is treated the same way as a debited transaction so from the banks perspective, it's cheaper to put a hold on any investigations until they actually debit as there's always the chance that they may not actually do so.

civil12345

OK thanks for the reply. I just thought it would be easier to cancel the transaction before it had actually gone out. Will wait until the money has been taken.

Hellzapoppin

If it were possible to cancel a pending, the system would be open to abuse, you could do your shopping and then request that you bank withhold the payment.

When a payment that has debited is disputed by the cardholder, the bank can request that the merchant proves the transaction to be genuine. The bank are obliged to refund you for an unauthorised transaction while they investigate it, unless they can prove that the transaction is yours.

Flobberchops

Hellzapoppin wrote: »

If it were possible to cancel a pending, the system would be open to abuse, you could do your shopping and then request that you bank withhold the payment.

The system is already open to abuse - credit card chargebacks and DD indemnities for example.

I can also confirm it's possible to cancel a pending payment. There have been cases of companies duplicating legitimate payments, such as ticket or room bookings, one payment is debited as expected and a duplicate amount held open as an authorised but pending payment which hangs around for several days before being dropped by the third party. Whether this is a quirk of the system or whether some hotels etc use this as a sneaky way of holding a deposit, I'm not sure. This does however tend to leave people out of pocket as they've effectively paid twice! In cases like this I think a person would be perfectly justified in seeking a cancellation.