Delayed transaction took me over limit

tara73

A credit card transaction has appeared on my statement today dated 7 weeks ago. It was never showing in my pending transactions and it does not display any merchant details like all the other transactions on my statement.
This transaction took me over my agreed credit limit.
It is referenced to a supermarket I use regularly. All previous transactions for this supermarket show as pending, clear within 2/3 days and have merchant information available to view.
I queried with my credit card company and they have said they cannot explain it. I have raised it as a complaint to get this investigated.
What should I or my credit card company be doing at this stage?

molerat

It is solely up to you to keep within your limits in accordance with the card terms and conditions you agreed to. There are many reasons why a transaction does not show as pending. There is nothing the retailer or credit co have done wrong or should be doing and certainly nothing to "complain" about, it is all down to you. If you are going to run your card so close to the limit you need to be meticulous in your own record keeping.

jonesMUFCforever

Simples really - if you spent it then you spent it - if you did not or it has been a duplicated transaction complain - otherwise the previous poster has got it spot on.

(In a way they have given you an interest free loan until now)

Ben8282

tara73 wrote: »

A credit card transaction has appeared on my statement today dated 7 weeks ago. It was never showing in my pending transactions and it does not display any merchant details like all the other transactions on my statement.
This transaction took me over my agreed credit limit.
It is referenced to a supermarket I use regularly. All previous transactions for this supermarket show as pending, clear within 2/3 days and have merchant information available to view.
I queried with my credit card company and they have said they cannot explain it. I have raised it as a complaint to get this investigated.
What should I or my credit card company be doing at this stage?

What you have written is really quite contradictory. Either the name of the merchant is shown or it isn't. If it isn't then what is actually written as the description and how is it 'referenced' to a supermarket.
Although these days delays of this nature are much less common than in the past when manual charge forms were used, unfortunately a seven week delay cannot really be considered unreasonable.
If this was a large transaction you should have remembered that you made it. If it is a small transaction easily overlooked you will need to keep better records in the future to avoid such a thing happening again. It would also help not to get so close to your credit limit.
The only question here is did you or did you not make this transaction. If you did, there is very little to be done except perhaps to ask the credit card company very nicely if they would waive the over limit charge and adverse credit reporting on this occasion due to what happened. If this is the first time you have exceeded the credit limit they may well do so if you are lucky.
If you did not make this transaction you will need to dispute it but be sure that you really did not make the transaction first otherwise you will only make a fool of yourself.

tara73

Thanks for your replies. The transaction is dated 2 May 17. It popped up on my credit card statement on 23 June 17 (information provided by my credit card company today) with a date of 2 May 17. There are other transactions with the supermarket on and after 2 May 17 which cleared my statement within 2/3 days of the transaction. So why then did this transaction not show 2 or 3 days after the 2 May - if indeed it is a valid transaction. I can open the detail behind all the other transactions for this supermarket just not this one.

PeacefulWaters

tara73 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. The transaction is dated 2 May 17. It popped up on my credit card statement on 23 June 17 (information provided by my credit card company today) with a date of 2 May 17. There are other transactions with the supermarket on and after 2 May 17 which cleared my statement within 2/3 days of the transaction. So why then did this transaction not show 2 or 3 days after the 2 May - if indeed it is a valid transaction. I can open the detail behind all the other transactions for this supermarket just not this one.

Any complaint you have is with your supermarket. And with your own failure to reconcile spending to statement.

forgotmyname

Shopped at ASDA on a weekend and its taken until the Thursday or Friday to show on my statement. Not had one take 7 weeks but maybe just a glitch on their system when doing the transaction and it failed to get through.

You ask why the transaction did not show after a few days, but the question could be why didnt you check the transaction to see if it had gone through and if the amount was correct.

agrinnall

Your only chance of a complaint succeeding is if the supermarket did submit the transaction at the time it was made and your card issuer then failed to process it. A retailer is under no obligation to seek payment immediately (for instance, you might have paid by cheque and then the cheque could sit in the till for several weeks until the retailer had to go to the bank) although generally if it takes longer than 6 months they would need to ask for authorisation again.

I would suggest you ask your card issuer for evidence of when they received the transaction from the supermarket, and if they have delayed processing it you could ask for any costs you may have incurred to be refunded (although it's not clear whether this has actually had any impact on you or not).

Richey_

My understanding was that the retailer had 6 months to take the monies from your card.
Looks like the considerate retailer thought it better to take now rather than leave younsort nearer a Christmas.
What do you expect as an outcome? The most you will get will be a letter explaining their legal obligations and maximum time scales to take the money.
You authorised the transaction, you are stuck with the consequences.

Have you considered a basic bank account or a limited bank account which will not let you go over drawn or have transactions that take you over drawn?

chattychappy

In this electronic age, transactions shouldn't really be delayed despite the T+Cs allowing for it.

If you don't think you made the transaction, you can dispute it. It is for the CC to prove you authorised the transaction, not for you to prove you didn't.

If you think the purchase is genuine, then of course you must pay.

Posters are right to say that you should remember the transactions you make and allow for them. I used to keep all my receipts and remember everything. Particularly since contactless, I can have 100 or more transactions in a month. I look at the statement and can only spot something that is out of the ordinary. I certainly don't remember everything. It's not really a problem because my limits are far in excess of my monthly spend.

If you've suffered fees because you are overlimit then I would ask for them to be refunded and hope that in the circumstances the CC would agree.

Shakin_Steve

The supermarket will have all of the details of this transaction in their records, including the individual transaction number which can be directly attributed to a till receipt. I would ring the customer services of the supermarket, explain your predicament and ask, nicely, if they would be so kind as to look into it for you.
If they won't/can't help, I would get in touch with the disputed transactions dept of your card provider and ...well...dispute the transaction. They will have to contact the retailer and ask for proof.
Someone said you may look foolish if it proves to be genuine. So what? At least it won't be like an itch that you can't scratch.