Recurrent Transactions

Troutdale

I have banked with Santander since 2013 and have Current and Credit Card accounts with them, which I access through online banking.

Purchases made by credit card appear on my online statement predominantly marked as PURCHASE - DOMESTIC and occasionally as PURCHASE - INTERNATIONAL depending on the location of the merchant.

Recently (in the last 2 months), three one-off purchases I have made from different merchants (airport parking, printer cartridge, hotel accommodation) have appeared as RECURRENT TRANSACTION on my online statement.

I have booked airport parking many times previously with the same merchant. In all those previous instances, the transaction appeared as PURCHASE - DOMESTIC.

I have previously purchased a printer cartridge from the same merchant. That transaction appeared as PURCHASE - DOMESTIC.

I have spoken with my local branch of Santander and with Santander Credit Card Services, both of whom don’t seem to recognise that there may be a problem here. I have contacted the airport and printer cartridge companies by email and been either fobbed off or ignored.

I should add that at no point during the purchase of these items/services did I explicitly agree to a Continuous Payment Authority.

Am I wrong to be concerned about this?

Troutdale

[Deleted User]

Yes. 

If you ever see any transactions you haven't authorised, you just need to dispute those.

born_again

Could just be the way the retailer is processing the transaction.

If you printer ink is for HP Instant Ink it does show as a REC trans.

Troutdale

Deleted_User

Thanks for your advice, which echoes that from my bank and the credit card services.

born_again

… or the way the credit card company is processing the transaction.

It just all looks a bit fishy to me. For 8 years, I’ve had nothing but PURCHASE - DOMESTIC and PURCHASE - INTERNATIONAL transactions recorded, except for car insurance where I know there is a CPA (that was made clear to me when I agreed to the deal and the annual transactions for that do indeed appear as RECURRENT TRANSACTION).

Now, all of a sudden, three one-off purchases from three different merchants have been recorded as RECURRENT TRANSACTIONs. Either these merchants have all set up CPAs without my consent, or the transactions are being processed incorrectly.

I don’t feel comfortable just waiting for the ticking time-bombs to explode, but that appears to be the advice received. Hope I’m not back here again in a years time complaining about spurious charges for car parking and accommodation for a holiday I never booked or a printer cartridge for a printer which I threw in the bin a couple of months ago!

Troutdale

born_again

Troutdale said:

Deleted_User

Thanks for your advice, which echoes that from my bank and the credit card services.

born_again

… or the way the credit card company is processing the transaction.

It just all looks a bit fishy to me. For 8 years, I’ve had nothing but PURCHASE - DOMESTIC and PURCHASE - INTERNATIONAL transactions recorded, except for car insurance where I know there is a CPA (that was made clear to me when I agreed to the deal and the annual transactions for that do indeed appear as RECURRENT TRANSACTION).

Now, all of a sudden, three one-off purchases from three different merchants have been recorded as RECURRENT TRANSACTIONs. Either these merchants have all set up CPAs without my consent, or the transactions are being processed incorrectly.

I don’t feel comfortable just waiting for the ticking time-bombs to explode, but that appears to be the advice received. Hope I’m not back here again in a years time complaining about spurious charges for car parking and accommodation for a holiday I never booked or a printer cartridge for a printer which I threw in the bin a couple of months ago!

Troutdale

No the retailer & their Merchant bank set up the MCC & payment type. Your bank has no hand in it. 

Troutdale

born_again

Thanks for the info, but I still don’t understand why a retailer who has processed my transactions with them as one-off payments many times in the past, has now decided to process exactly the same type of transaction as a recurring payment. Moreover, why are three completely unconnected retailers suddenly all doing this?

Furthermore, none of these payments are predictably recurrent. How does a retailer know when I will take another holiday, which airport I will fly from, which hotel I will be staying at, when I will need a new printer cartridge, which printer I will own at that time?

These type of transactions are just not recurrent, so why are they not processed as one-off payments as they always have been in the past?

Sorry, if this sounds like a rant or if I’m just being stupid, but I really don’t understand.

Troutdale

[Deleted User]

If it was a single merchant then It's more likely to be their mistake but the fact it's multiple, unrelated ones points towards Santander. It could be something as simple as their merchant accounts are enabled for CPA (as not all are) and this info is now being picked up by Santander. 

Santander really are the fountain of pointless information - got my first Everyday account statement and noticed that all my ATM withdrawals are at rate of 1.00 to the Pound.

Ergates

It could be a change to the way HSBC categorise and display transactions from certain merchant types.

sparklep0ny

Ergates said:

It could be a change to the way HSBC categorise and display transactions from certain merchant types.

Other than it being a Santander account, yeah.  It could be that HSBC has changed the way they categorise transactions and Santander have followed suit.

Ergates

sparklep0ny said:

Ergates said:

It could be a change to the way HSBC categorise and display transactions from certain merchant types.

Other than it being a Santander account, yeah.  It could be that HSBC has changed the way they categorise transactions and Santander have followed suit.

Not sure where I got HSBC from....!   Still, same idea.

sparklep0ny

Ergates said:

sparklep0ny said:

Ergates said:

It could be a change to the way HSBC categorise and display transactions from certain merchant types.

Other than it being a Santander account, yeah.  It could be that HSBC has changed the way they categorise transactions and Santander have followed suit.

Not sure where I got HSBC from....!   Still, same idea.

Yes, sorry.  I was just pulling your chain