Visa card top-up - why so slow?

Seamus_posting_to_Forum

I have a smile (part of the Co-Op Bank) Visa card. I am allowed to top it up from my smile current account if I’m getting near the card’s limit, but the payment takes about two days to reach the Visa card account, which means that it’s easy to go over the limit inadvertently. Other payments between accounts seem to be almost instant.

This is irritating because I deliberately have a fairly low limit on the card in case it gets stolen. I would imagine that this is to the bank’s benefit so why do they make it tricky to manage?

Does this happen with other cards? What is the reason? Is there any point complaining about it?

jon81uk

Having a low limit in case its stolen is pointless. As you said yourself you keep going over the limit, so there is nothing stopping a theif doing the same. Just report the card as lost and sort it out then.

eskbanker

Seamus_posting_to_Forum said:

I have a smile (part of the Co-Op Bank) Visa card. I am allowed to top it up from my smile current account if I’m getting near the card’s limit, but the payment takes about two days to reach the Visa card account, which means that it’s easy to go over the limit inadvertently. Other payments between accounts seem to be almost instant.

[...]

Does this happen with other cards? What is the reason? Is there any point complaining about it?

Yes, it happens with other cards - it isn't realistic to compare the time to credit a credit card account with a transfer between current accounts (it's a more complex process) so there's no point in complaining about it.

Seamus_posting_to_Forum said:

This is irritating because I deliberately have a fairly low limit on the card in case it gets stolen. I would imagine that this is to the bank’s benefit so why do they make it tricky to manage?

As above, it's pointless to deliberately maintain a low limit in case of theft - apart from anything else, if it's stolen then the bank is liable for any transactions after you've reported it, and even those before you've reported it beyond about £50 if I recall correctly, provided you haven't been careless or negligent.

Credit cards aren't tricky to manage if used properly, i.e. have a credit limit appropriate to your financial circumstances, spend on it as needed and (preferably) settle the bill in full (once per statement) in between the statement date and its payment due date.

Seamus_posting_to_Forum

I don't repeatedly go over the limit. If I'm approaching the limit I top up the card. But that can be tricky because of the two-day delay for the credit.

If the card is stolen or unauthorised transactions are made by some other means then in principle the bank reimburses me, but it’s at their discretion, and they might decide that I’m at fault, because of carelessness or late reporting or whatever. For that reason it seems to me that it’s good idea to minimise the possible loss, to me or to the bank, depending on whether or not they think it was my fault.

As I understand it, if the limit has been reached a new transaction is rejected, and so a low limit will reduce the possible loss.

I find it hard to believe that a transfer between two accounts in the same bank has to take two days when a transfer between accounts with different banks can happen the same day.

Daliah

I don't know the card you have but I agree, I can't see why it should take 2 days to load.

How about changing to a different card? The Tesco Clubcard Pay+ card loads near instantly in my experience, from nearly any bank, and it also pays you cashback.

Brie

Does it actually take 2 days to load or simply take 2 days to be obvious?  I have an M&S card and if I make a payment to it it can take a couple of days to show on the account.  But when it does it's back dated.  MBNA on the other hand is nearly instantaneous.  I suspect that it's because smile & M&S are not actually banks so the money hits the real bank (co-op for you) and then has to go through their systems and downloads.

jon81uk

Seamus_posting_to_Forum said:

As I understand it, if the limit has been reached a new transaction is rejected, and so a low limit will reduce the possible loss.

Not always. It can just go over the limit and charge a fee to you.

Depends on the type of card(debit/credit), the value of the transaction and which bank.

So having a low limit could be worse as you may get more fees

400ixl

Most cards with banks (especially digital) allow you to lock features on the cards in their app. For example lock its ability to be used online, in an ATM, contactless payments or limit the amount you can use on contactless (below the standard £100 limit).

Can you not just lock the features and unlock them when you need to actually use them?

Is the card a pre-load card where you have to load funds onto it before it can be used and the delay is in that loading?

Maybe a Starling account would be better where you can create a bucket and get a debit card which is locked to that bucket. Transfer between the main account and that bucket is instant as essentially it is the same account.

born_again

Same question, different poster. Different board...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6365913/why-is-it-so-slow-to-top-up-my-visa-card#latest