NatWest Visa (Debit Card) “Payment Successful”...but it wasn’t!

Biggus_Dickus

My son recently (10 days ago) paid off his outstanding car HP loan ‘Settlement Figure’ using his NatWest Visa debit card. The payment was to a company called MotoNovoFinance and was completed, apparently successfully, via their website. The payment was for £10,200 and he has approx £13.5k in his NatWest current account.

However, the payment obviously didn’t complete successfully as his bank balance hasn’t altered and MotoNovo finance say they have no record of the payment being made, but they can see that he had accessed their ‘Settlement Figure’ payment system. His NatWest current account showed no record of the payment being made.

We tried again today (Saturday) to make the payment of £10,200 (£13,500 in his NatWest current account) and once again it appears to have been successful (see screenshot). However, once again his bank balance (despite the screen message from NatWest Visa stating “Payment Successful......Your payment has been successfully processed”) hasn’t changed and there is no notification of the debit card payment on his current account transactions or pending transactions.

Any idea where the problem lies?....is it with MotoNovo Finance or NatWest Visa Debit card system?

Mystified as to why NatWest Visa say the payment was successful and yet it leaves no trace of any transaction in the current account. We’ve made countless high value debit card transactions but never encountered a problem like this.  Desperate to get this sorted as another monthly HP payment is due soon.

As ever, all replies gratefully received.

 

sheramber

Just a thought.

Does he have a daily limit on what he can pay out.

I am with RBS- same group- and they have introduced a daily limit to help avoid an account being emptied in fraudulent withdrawals transfers. Only the set amount can be withdrawn each day.

They  advised me of the amount they had set but advised I can change it whenever I want. 

 I think mine was set at £4000 , which I can change in online banking.

Biggus_Dickus

@sheramber thanks for the reply. ...

No, there is no issue with a daily limit;...I’ve just spent almost an hour on the phone to NatWest and they too are completely mystified as to how this situation can possibly arise,...which doesn’t fill me with confidence.

They’ve escalated it to their ‘technical specialists’ and I’m to ring them tomorrow to hopefully??? get a resolution.

There is obviously a serious glitch somewhere in the process as the very fact that we get the NatWest Visa message  “Payment Successful......Your payment has been successfully processed” should  in turn mean that the transaction details are recorded on the current account,....but they aren’t being recorded because the payment hasn’t actually been successful at all !

p00hsticks

Biggus_Dickus said:

Any idea where the problem lies?....is it with MotoNovo Finance or NatWest Visa Debit card system?

I'd say it's most likely to be with whoever is handling the website payments. It sounds like the transaction is being authorised by NatWest (and therefore slightly odd that the available balance on his account isn't being reduced or showing up as a pending transaction). The transaction itself will get routed from the website to whichever merchant acquirer they use, then to Visa before it reaches NatWest - so it's not making it though one of those stages. If I were you I'd start at the beginning with the merchant and get them to trace the transaction through a step at a time, rather that go to NatWest who are the end point and can only say that it never reached them (although they could perhaps comfirm if they authorised a transaction ?).

daveyjp

If its due to a middle third party problem 'paying' twice may lead to further problems if both payments are eventually released.

He could end up being massively overdrawn so watch the balance closely.

sheramber

p00hsticks said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

Any idea where the problem lies?....is it with MotoNovo Finance or NatWest Visa Debit card system?

I'd say it's most likely to be with whoever is handling the website payments. It sounds like the transaction is being authorised by NatWest (and therefore slightly odd that the available balance on his account isn't being reduced or showing up as a pending transaction). The transaction itself will get routed from the website to whichever merchant acquirer they use, then to Visa before it reaches NatWest - so it's not making it though one of those stages. If I were you I'd start at the beginning with the merchant and get them to trace the transaction through a step at a time, rather that go to NatWest who are the end point and can only say that it never reached them (although they could perhaps comfirm if they authorised a transaction ?).

The payment is from Natwest, not to iy.

colsten

sheramber said:

p00hsticks said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

Any idea where the problem lies?....is it with MotoNovo Finance or NatWest Visa Debit card system?

I'd say it's most likely to be with whoever is handling the website payments. It sounds like the transaction is being authorised by NatWest (and therefore slightly odd that the available balance on his account isn't being reduced or showing up as a pending transaction). The transaction itself will get routed from the website to whichever merchant acquirer they use, then to Visa before it reaches NatWest - so it's not making it though one of those stages. If I were you I'd start at the beginning with the merchant and get them to trace the transaction through a step at a time, rather that go to NatWest who are the end point and can only say that it never reached them (although they could perhaps comfirm if they authorised a transaction ?).

The payment is from Natwest, not to iy.

 AFAIK, you cannot initiate a payment to a 3rd party with a debit card from any bank's online banking or app.  Thus the payment must have been initiated from the MotoNovo website, or worse, a website that poses as MotoNovo. I agree with Biggus_Dickus - OP's son should ask MotoNovo to investigate.

If I were the OP's son, I would also get the debit card blocked, just to make sure that no rogues are using the card details - all of which have been given at least twice on the website the payment was attempted on.

Biggus_Dickus

OP here, 

Thanks for the replies;...there is definitely nothing underhand going on,  or scam websites involved . The payment website is MotoNovo Finance’s own payment system. He’s been using the website from day one. Registered login on a secure system.

He’s had the HP loan for 18 months and has been paying monthly D/D’s to MotoNovo Finance,.. it’s all perfectly kosher. MotoNovo can monitor the payment system activity (time/date etc) when it’s accessed by a customer. Indeed, they actually confirmed the exact time that the payment process had been activated. Speaking to MotoNovo’s help-desk they are at a loss to explain why the payment hasn’t arrived with them,...and just to re-iterate, no money has left my son’s current account,....and therein lies the problem.

MotoNovo don’t know what’s gone wrong,...and neither do NatWest-Visa at the moment.

 

colsten

It is for MotoNovo Finance to sort out why their website presents a confirmation message when there is nothing to confirm.

In the meantime, presumably they offer other payment methods, such as a bank transfer or a cheque, or a one-off DD?

Migster

Could you confirm how the payment is being made? If it's a card payment i.e. where you type in the 16 digit number, expiry date, etc. you wouldn't normally get a "payment successful" message from NatWest but from the merchant instead.

I'm just wondering if the screen you've posted is from the completion of the Verified by Visa stage. After this, the payment would still need to be authorised by the bank, so maybe they are making a risk-based decision to decline it as it is such a high amount.

p00hsticks

sheramber saimd:

p00hsticks said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

Any idea where the problem lies?....is it with MotoNovo Finance or NatWest Visa Debit card system?

I'd say it's most likely to be with whoever is handling the website payments. It sounds like the transaction is being authorised by NatWest (and therefore slightly odd that the available balance on his account isn't being reduced or showing up as a pending transaction). The transaction itself will get routed from the website to whichever merchant acquirer they use, then to Visa before it reaches NatWest - so it's not making it though one of those stages. If I were you I'd start at the beginning with the merchant and get them to trace the transaction through a step at a time, rather that go to NatWest who 'are the end point and can only say that it never reached them (although they could perhaps comfirm if they authorised a transaction ?).

The payment is from Natwest, not to iy.

If you make a payment with a debit or credit card, the bank issuing the card may first be asked to authorise the payment (and may, once aware of the transaction adjust the persons available balance and flag up a potential pending transaction).

But the route of the payment settlement details is that the retailer requests payment from their merchant acquirer, who pass the request on to the card company (VISA or Mastercard) who in turn notify whichever bank issued the card.

So if trying to trace where a transaction has got lost, it is better to start at the retailer side than that of the bank.