Pending debit card transaction in apps

theiceking

Looking at a new bank that shows debit card transactions straight away with the retailer.

i know Halifax does this, but Nationwide doesn't show the retailer. Any others that show straight away in the app?

ozaz

Monzo and Starling are best for this.

They treat pending transactions as having taken place and so also update your balance. They also provide better information on each transaction than other banks.

Cash-Strapped.T32

Natwest have just recently started doing this in their app - like just in the past week recently.

Terry_Towelling

ozaz wrote: »

Monzo and Starling are best for this.

They treat pending transactions as having taken place and so also update your balance. They also provide better information on each transaction than other banks.

If this is what Monzo and Starling do, it is especially good for them because they get the benefit of your money for the period of time between the transactions appearing as pending and actually clearing.

Presumably, if they 'clear' a transaction whilst still pending and the transaction never actually gets cleared, they will credit your account at some point???

What do they do with transactions at automated fuel dispensers (e.g. Tesco Pay@Pump) where the pending amount only shows as £1 until the true amount clears? Do you end up getting charged £1 plus the full transaction amount when the retailer clears it?

How do they handle transactions where, say, a tip is added after a restaurant bill has been sent for Authorisation, or where a hotel/car hire company seeks approval for an estimated amount but then clears a slightly different amount?

Worth remembering that no bank can guarantee to always show your transactions as soon as you make them unless the CHIP stipulates the card must always go online for Authorisation AND the Issuer is available to handle the Authorisation request.

ozaz

I only have experience with Monzo...

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Presumably, if they 'clear' a transaction whilst still pending and the transaction never actually gets cleared, they will credit your account at some point???

I can't remember the last time this happened to me, but I think what probably happens is your account gets credited and the original transaction gets removed from your list of transactions and it will be as if it never took place (as oppose to having both a debit and credit transaction).

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

What do they do with transactions at automated fuel dispensers (e.g. Tesco Pay@Pump) where the pending amount only shows as £1 until the true amount clears? Do you end up getting charged £1 plus the full transaction amount when the retailer clears it?

My last one of those was over 6 months ago so again, can't quite remember. But looking back at the transaction it just appears now as a single transaction so I think these types of transactions just get updated when the final amount is known.

I have had some active card check transactions for online stores/services where I have a debit transaction and then a separate credit transaction some time later but I suspect that's how they would appear at any bank.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

How do they handle transactions where, say, a tip is added after a restaurant bill has been sent for Authorisation, or where a hotel/car hire company seeks approval for an estimated amount but then clears a slightly different amount?

I've never put a hotel or car hire bill on my Monzo card. Would always use credit card for those.

Tip taken after authorisation - I've not experienced this. Is this more typical abroad? I've not used Monzo abroad yet.

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Worth remembering that no bank can guarantee to always show your transactions as soon as you make them unless the CHIP stipulates the card must always go online for Authorisation AND the Issuer is available to handle the Authorisation request.

Yes, obviously the POS terminal has to be online. But in practice I hardly ever encounter POS terminals which aren't online these days. So virtually all my transactions are instantly debited. Not sure if that's because I'm city-based.

[Deleted User]

Nationwide shows pending - but why must you see the retailer?

Do you not remember what you spent where?

EarthBoy

Barclays and Lloyds show the retailer on pending transactions.

sausage_time

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

Natwest have just recently started doing this in their app - like just in the past week recently.

RBS too. Same platform probably.

System

Metro Bank shows pending transactions with retailer information.

Terry_Towelling

ozaz wrote: »

Tip taken after authorisation - I've not experienced this. Is this more typical abroad? I've not used Monzo abroad yet.

Yes, obviously the POS terminal has to be online. But in practice I hardly ever encounter POS terminals which aren't online these days. So virtually all my transactions are instantly debited. Not sure if that's because I'm city-based.

Thanks for all the info. One small caveat to what follows, I am a dinosaur, many years out of the cards industry, so there may have been changes that nullify what I say.

The practice of tipping by card and how they are added will have changed over the years (especially now the telephone is rarely - if ever - used to seek authorisation) such that the scenario I mentioned is unlikely. However, Card Scheme rules did used to make provision for it by allowing a cleared transaction to be up to 20% more than the authorised amount to allow for tips added later.

The same sort of thing applies to hotel/car rentals where a 'pre-auth' will be allowed to 'stand' for a later cleared transaction with a different amount. If that does happen, possibly the biggest issue will be with Monzo matching the auth for one amount with the cleared transaction for a different amount. It is just conceivable that Monzo would allow both auth and clearing messages to be debited - unless there is some Tran ID in the auth that also accompanies the clearing message - the CHIP cryptogram perhaps?

The online/offline issue is more likely to be a factor where either the retailer has a comms failure or the card issuer has a similar issue. The card schemes can stand-in and authorise on the issuer's behalf (according to issuer-specified parameters) but that approval would still not reach the account if the issuer's comms are down.

These may seem like small issues that are hardly likely to happen, but they will and the new entrants to the market may not have factored them in to their processing and might get tripped up one day; we will then see threads banging on about how a hotel charged my Monzo card for £120 and also for £145 when I only stayed for one night - what should I do?

ozaz

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

The same sort of thing applies to hotel/car rentals where a 'pre-auth' will be allowed to 'stand' for a later cleared transaction with a different amount. If that does happen, possibly the biggest issue will be with Monzo matching the auth for one amount with the cleared transaction for a different amount. It is just conceivable that Monzo would allow both auth and clearing messages to be debited

Yes - it seems this does happen - as discussed on Monzo's community
https://community.monzo.com/t/when-pre-authorisation-is-not-pre-authorisation/48119

But it sounds like the issue is the same with any bank. If this happened with traditional banks your 'available balance' (amount available to spend) would also be effected by both transactions until the pre-authorised transaction is removed. Monzo just treats your available balance as your actual balance. The idea being it makes it easier for the customer to stay on top of their money if they just have a single balance and if pending transactions show up as actual transactions. Potential concern with Monzo here is if it causes you to go overdrawn. But they don't charge overdraft fees if overdrawn due to uncleared pending transaction.

I'd never encountered the double charging issue before because I would always use my credit card at hotels and car hire places, and any transaction over £100 for that matter.

There's also a thread on the pay at pump behaviour if interested
https://community.monzo.com/t/pending-transactions-buying-fuel-at-pump/53548