Abbey holding onto my money

bargains83

nealallen wrote: »

Abbey National (Or their new name) Shabbey National are in a mess. They have had problems with their Debit cards since March this year. Thousands of complaints and no help, that includes me. I would far more believe what Asda has told you than what Shabbey has :mad:

If you don't believe me, look at this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=515980

This is irrelevant, A bank cannot possibly invent debit card transactions on an account, they can only pay and tell you what has been requested on your card number and what has gone through. The thread you have linked to is regarding cards not being delivered properly. Abbey have also had problems with their new banking software, but again this resulted in cards being declined.

This is definately Asda who's procedure is to charge you twice but only collect on one amount. In the supermarket world prices change daily as do the discounts when you place an order they need to check you have enough money to cover what you want to purchase before they send an employee to do your shopping in the store for you. Then because of discounts/special offers the price is likely going to be less than the price initially quoted so they need to somehow make an adjustment to the funds originally taken.

Personally it makes sense to me to charge you for everything at full price then process a 'refund' to your debit card for the discounts once your shopping is out for delivery. However this isn't actually money saving savvy.

The supermarkets procedure is to do 2 authorisations but collect on only one of them, this means that only one transaction will ever actually appear on your statement and you won't lose any interest which should be accrued on the difference between the two requests for authorisation which you would do if you were charged more than the shopping is actually worth and then recieved a refund.

Again this is not the banks fault, they have to withold any authorisation for several days and assume that it will be collected on. I have ordered things in the past, the money is reserved, got the goods then 3 days later the money taken for the goods is back on my available balance. 5 days later the money is re-deducted from the available balance and also shows on my statement.

In these scenarios it is easy to become overdrawn as you can spend money that isn't yours. There is nothing that can really be done its just the way the debit card system works to try and be fair to both parties (retailer & consumer).

Pendle_Gazza

It does sound more like Asda than Abbey. So the obvious thing would be to try internet shopping from someone else and see what happens.

If that proves to be the same, then you can either go to the hassle of a different account or bank, or, perhaps, why not actually do the traditional thing of actually GOING to the supermarket? :-)

twise

Thank you all for your comments...I have tried shopping different days of the week and the same thing happens...all i want is when the final total is taken out of my account, the provisional balance that is being held is put back at the same time enabling me to access my money.

With regard to going to the supermarket, I look after my aunt who has learning difficulties and cannot be left unattended for any amount of time so the days of being able to go out to shop have long gone i'm afraid.

Thank you all


Twise

Mikeyorks

You're wasting your time pursuing Abbey - the whole problem is with Asda. In fact (your first post) I'm astonished Abbey have ever agreed to release funds back into your account whilst there is an authorised sum apparently outstanding to Asda. You normally have to go via Asda (who will zeroise the rogue amount via their Merchant acquirer) to accomplish that.

When Asda do the tentative initial reservation on your account - they should either void that when putting the final total through. Or re-use that transaction - with the amount of the final bill. They're being totally incompetent as this is a function they should be used to (some hotels have the same problem - as I've found to my cost). But you've been firing bullets at the wrong people - Abbey are guiltless in this one.

If you can't sort Asda out - get a cashback credit card (Egg - or whatever) and use that. If Asda continue their idiocies on that - at least there's less direct impact on your cashflow

heppy23

have a look here, http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=4079354#post4079354

it explains the problems I had similar to yours. The retailer was blamed.

I rarely use a debit card now, I am transferring most of my spending to my egg money card to earn some cashback.

twise

Thanks for this Heppy23...thats what i've done with this weeks shop...use a credit card and I'll pay the balance on Monday.

To be honest I can't be doing this not so merry dance with Asda and Abbey anymore.

many thanks

twise

riad_2

As mentioned by others here... this is not Abbey's fault (or problem) and it's not fair that you are having arguments with their staff to release authorised funds.

The "system" which Abbey refer to (in your original post) is where they will (and must!) deduct authorised funds from your available spending until the amount is then debited from the account (this is called "matched"... i.e. where the authorisation code of the authorised funds are matched with the authorisation code for the debit request).

If no debit request with the authorisation code of the authorised funds is presented after a certain period of time (usually 7 days or something...), then the authorisation will release and and your available funds will be back to what they were.

The fact that in your case, you're saying that your final Asda bill is taken as a SECOND authorisation from your balance, means that Asda are definately using another auth code for the final bill. This is Asda's problem NOT Abbey's!

Please please please do not argue with Abbey staff over this bcos it's not their fault AT ALL and they are following their procedures, and have no obligation whatsoever to release authorised funds unless they can be absolutely certain the funds will not be debited (many banks will only release authorised funds after receiving a fax from the retailer to confirm the will not debit the account... otherwise you just have to wait until the authorisation releases itself in time).

heppy23

twise wrote: »

Thanks for this Heppy23...thats what i've done with this weeks shop...use a credit card and I'll pay the balance on Monday.

To be honest I can't be doing this not so merry dance with Asda and Abbey anymore.

many thanks

twise

Do you use the abbey online banking? If so then set your credit card up as a bill payment. Then use it for purchases and then pay that amount off each time (or round it up to the nearest fiver).

Mikeyorks

riad wrote: »

If no debit request with the authorisation code of the authorised funds is presented after a certain period of time (usually 7 days or something...), then the authorisation will release and and your available funds will be back to what they were.

Really nice to see someone posting accurate data on this subject. Where you get an orphaned reserved amount (ie it's been authorised ... but never will be claimed) it is around 7 working days before your Bank's systems will release it back to funding. Most on here / also Bank staff .. will claim 'it will happen in a couple of days', which is completely untrue.

riad wrote: »

(many banks will only release authorised funds after receiving a fax from the retailer to confirm the will not debit the account...

They shouldn't do it even then - as the missing transaction is with the retailers Merchant acquirer - and any dialogue to your Bank can only safely be done by them as the only authority on whether the transaction will materialise or not. The ideal is that the retailer zeroises the rogue one under the original authorisation code.

boo_star

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Really nice to see someone posting accurate data on this subject. Where you get an orphaned reserved amount (ie it's been authorised ... but never will be claimed) it is around 7 working days before your Bank's systems will release it back to funding. Most on here / also Bank staff .. will claim 'it will happen in a couple of days', which is completely untrue.

Really?

I've personally witnessed authorisations drop off an RBS account in 2 WORKING days, then claimed the day after. I have never ever witnessed an authorisation last more than 3 WORKING days, ever.