Post Office Bureau de Change

cathy57

My friend went to the post office today to buy 300 euros using his debit card. First, the post office employee took £288 from his debit card. This amount shows as pending on his bank statement. 

Then the employee took the card again to take the same amount which this time did not show as a pending transaction, but as already paid. This has left my friend short of money on his account.

The employee says it is a normal procedure and his bank will refund the pending amount at some point . Really ? Are people supposed to have twice as much as they need on their account when buying foreign currency ? How can that be right ? 

I would be grateful if someone could explain. Thank you.

NoodleDoodleMan

Sounds as if the Post Office assistant was in the wrong.

eDicky

I can't see any 'normal procedure', it seems a mistake was made. But the pending amount will drop off after a week or so of not being collected.

Your friend also made the mistake of subjecting himself to the PO's atrocious exchange rate. 300€ from a eurozone ATM today would cost £260 with a fee -free card, even with overseas fees of his regular card it would be cheaper to use than buying cash at the Post Office.

sheramber

This happens with online grocery shopping and buying fuel.

It is to validate the account and that there is enough money available for the purchase.

eDicky

sheramber said:

This happens with online grocery shopping and buying fuel.

It is to validate the account and that there is enough money available for the purchase.

But would that process be necessary at any Bureau de Change, with card and customer present?

tightauldgit

eDicky said:

sheramber said:

This happens with online grocery shopping and buying fuel.

It is to validate the account and that there is enough money available for the purchase.

But would that process be necessary at any Bureau de Change, with the customer present?

It's possible there was an error on the first transaction? - I've had this happen with payments on my system. Payment goes through to provider, appears on customers phone, then fails for some reason. I need to take a second payment as it's not processed through to me. Both show on the customers account until provider sorts out and one falls off.  

Either that or PO are doing some weird pre-approval thing. 

sheramber

This relates to buying online but may still apply

As soon as you select the 'Place order' button we will validate your card and the availability of funds. If your order is accepted, funds will be allocated against your card immediately.

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/help-support/travel-money

cathy57

Thank you all for your replies.
I hope it’s just an error, but I wonder why the employee first took his debit card and typed what I supposed was the long number and the amount. Then, he asked my friend to put his card into the card reader but the card was declined which my friend couldn’t understand because he had enough funds to buy his £300 worth of euros. His bank statement showed that the £288 had already been taken and showed as pending. When he was told to put his card into the card reader to get his euros, he didn’t have enough fund as he of course had the amount taken twice !  He then had to transfer some funds to get his euros ! 

Hopefully, the pending amount will soon be back into his account.