Pending transaction caused unwarranted overdraft!!!

penners324

I'd suggest having notifications set up on the Halifax app so that you receive notifications when payments are made.

This would have helped you realise when Amazon took the payment, giving time to transfer funds that day, to avoid fees.

Bigwheels1111

Don’t fill up at pay at pump for gods sake or you could be £120 overdrawn.
My friend got 4 x £45 charge on an EV charger that would not charger his car.
£180 taken for 16 days.
OUCH.
For petrol,EV Charging or future online payment it’s always credit card for me.

Kim_13

Perhaps an account like Chase? I have never known a pending transaction not be deducted immediately and they don’t offer overdrafts, so presumably could not levy a charge if one did occur.

Zanderman

Kim_13 said:

Perhaps an account like Chase? I have never known a pending transaction not be deducted immediately and they don’t offer overdrafts, so presumably could not levy a charge if one did occur.

Any bank can only list pending transactions when it's told about them. In this case Amazon didn't claim the payment until it needed to, so the bank wouldn't necessarily know.

km1500

yes I think this is the nub of the problem it's not that the banks are late in processing a payment it is just that the retail sometimes doesn't take it for a while

wmb194

Use a credit card with Amazon. When Amazon charges will then be less of an issue.

sausage_time

I agree with the comments about using a credit card so that you don't have to worry about going overdrawn day to day.  But be sure to pay off in full every month (ideally by Direct Debit, and make sure there is sufficient balance in your current account to cover so you don't go into overdraft!).  I'd also advocate tracking credit card expenditure (as well as current account).  This way you can monitor where it's all going, and also make sure you keep well away from your credit limit.