Duplicate payment in “pending payments”

kaffenback

Hi I have a payment in my Nationwide account’s “pending payments” that is a duplicate of one that is already showing in the account and deducted from the balance. The payments are to eBay for the same amount and both dated 2nd February. I am in a bit of a fix as I am not able to go food shopping due to the funds not being available to me when they should be (my pension pays out on the 8th so I am at the end of the month, so to speak).

I don’t really know where to start or who to complain to as it is not clear to me who’s fault it is, eBay or Nationwide. However I am determined to follow this through with a complaint if I can only work out who to.

molerat

There is nothing / little you can do. It is often no one's fault, just one of those things.  "Fixing" it will likely take longer than waiting for it to drop off.  One of the perils of debit card transactions when close to the limit of the account.  Have you not got an overdraft on the account ?  If you have then spending that money should not incur charges as you will not actually be using the overdraft, just offsetting against the pending amount.

kaffenback

No overdraft on the account, I got the account when I was in financial trouble 8 years ago. I kept it due to it being totally charge free, even if payments bounce. I can borrow a bit off a friend to get by until Tuesday, but I really want to know why this has happened and who’s fault it is.

molerat

As I said, sometimes it is just one of those things. You will likely never find out the true reason even if you raise a complaint, they are not going to spend hours combing through computer traces for a relatively minor error.  The best you would likely get would be a sorry, here is £20, now go away.  Sometimes the system just duplicates transactions.  Another possibility is the store asks for the money, the bank says yes which creates the pending transaction but the store terminal doesn't receive that reply which generates a decline. The store tries again, the bank says yes again and creates another pending.  This time the store receives the reply, processes the transaction and then debits the money but the first pending is still sitting there.

MalMonroe

kaffenback said:

Hi I have a payment in my Nationwide account’s “pending payments” that is a duplicate of one that is already showing in the account and deducted from the balance. The payments are to eBay for the same amount and both dated 2nd February. I am in a bit of a fix as I am not able to go food shopping due to the funds not being available to me when they should be (my pension pays out on the 8th so I am at the end of the month, so to speak).

I don’t really know where to start or who to complain to as it is not clear to me who’s fault it is, eBay or Nationwide. However I am determined to follow this through with a complaint if I can only work out who to.

I'm also with Nationwide. On their website it says you can phone them, 7 days a week, and the details are at the bottom of the page in this link -

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/help/payments/pending-transactions/

So according to that, you should be able to speak to someone tomorrow to explain your situation and tell them you are desperate for your money. It's really not good enough. Last month, Nationwide ended up having to compensate hundreds of customers who were inconvenienced by a fault in their online system. Ask them for the same compensation. 

I do hope you can get this sorted out quickly. As I read your post I was thinking it sounded like me, I'm in a similar situation and it's very similar to a problem I had with them last year. 

ZeroSum

I've had them before & they've always dropped off after a few days 

Thrugelmir

kaffenback said:

I don’t really know where to start or who to complain to as it is not clear to me who’s fault it is, eBay or Nationwide. However I am determined to follow this through with a complaint if I can only work out who to.

Wait until Monday when it's a working bank day and see if they drop off your account. 

kaffenback

Pending transaction still on my account today. Phoned the number linked to by MalMonroe and was told by person on the line that they will email another department that will sort it out but it takes two working days, hence I have initiated a complaint. The attitude was basically the same as a couple of posts on this thread, i.e. it just happens sometimes and nothing can be done about, not really receptive to the idea that it is unacceptable for someone to be unable to access their own money when they need it…

born_again

The fault will not be at bank end. They only approve transactions retailers request. 

So a common cause of this is someone pressing the confirm purchase button twice as it is taking a long time or ebay in this case processed it twice.

kaffenback

Also phoned eBay customer services, equally unhelpful just saying they will send a report to their back office requesting them to investigate it and there is no official route to complain to eBay.

kaffenback

Well I survived on borrowed money and my pension is in my account now so I’m fine, but the eBay duplicate pending transaction is still there today.