How long before a non-debited Visa Debit transaction expires?

Roy1234

Back in October, I paid for lunch in a café with my Visa Debit card.  It was a one-off visit to this place.  The transaction still hasn't reached my bank account.  Is there a certain time span after which this transaction will be cancelled, i.e. just how long do I have to allow for it still being suddenly debited?

sheenas

Normal it is pending for 7 days, then pending  status is reversed out. 

ColdIron

sheenas said:

Normal it is pending for 7 days, then pending  status is reversed out. 

It's not pending

Roy1234 said:

The transaction still hasn't reached my bank account.

GrumpyDil

And they have up to 6 years to ask for payment.

itsthelittlethings

It probably didn’t go through, are you sure it said approved on their terminal?

HillStreetBlues

Did you get a receipt?

born_again

Roy1234 said:

Back in October, I paid for lunch in a café with my Visa Debit card.  It was a one-off visit to this place.  The transaction still hasn't reached my bank account.  Is there a certain time span after which this transaction will be cancelled, i.e. just how long do I have to allow for it still being suddenly debited?

Visa regs state 6 months from date of transaction. So if presented after that you have a chargeback right. But if contactless or PIN transaction bank will not be keen to do this, as it is a genuine payment owed to retailer.
Also not unknown for retailer to change date of auth to within 6 months.

Legally retailer has 6 years or 5 in Scotland. But they would need you address to take it forward via the courts.

Roy1234

I'm fairly sure I got a receipt.  Opinions here seem to differ somewhat.  6 months I can understand/live with  The idea the debit could surface countless years later without warning is not easy to live with.  I remember back in the days of Switch, a card transaction at a garage taking almost a full year to be debited, this when I was scraping by on a mega tight budget, trying to avoid going withdrawn and getting bank fees.  It's kind of wrong to think this could still be the case.

In terms of a largish busy café/restaurant, does there come a point in terms of their own accounting systems that a transaction is forgotten, e.g. on an annual cycle?  How does the debit otherwise get remembered years later if missed at the time?

born_again

Roy1234 said:

I'm fairly sure I got a receipt.  Opinions here seem to differ somewhat.  6 months I can understand/live with  The idea the debit could surface countless years later without warning is not easy to live with.  I remember back in the days of Switch, a card transaction at a garage taking almost a full year to be debited, this when I was scraping by on a mega tight budget, trying to avoid going withdrawn and getting bank fees.  It's kind of wrong to think this could still be the case.

In terms of a largish busy café/restaurant, does there come a point in terms of their own accounting systems that a transaction is forgotten, e.g. on an annual cycle?  How does the debit otherwise get remembered years later if missed at the time?

Account's get audited. They realise there has been a failure in their payment system & days have not been processed.

Longest I have seen is a couple of years to debit & was a car park where the payments were not processed over a couple of months...
Also used to be common on airlines, where the in flight terminals were not connected to transfer purchases, after flight landed.

Roy1234

born_again said:

Roy1234 said:

I'm fairly sure I got a receipt.  Opinions here seem to differ somewhat.  6 months I can understand/live with  The idea the debit could surface countless years later without warning is not easy to live with.  I remember back in the days of Switch, a card transaction at a garage taking almost a full year to be debited, this when I was scraping by on a mega tight budget, trying to avoid going withdrawn and getting bank fees.  It's kind of wrong to think this could still be the case.

In terms of a largish busy café/restaurant, does there come a point in terms of their own accounting systems that a transaction is forgotten, e.g. on an annual cycle?  How does the debit otherwise get remembered years later if missed at the time?

Account's get audited. They realise there has been a failure in their payment system & days have not been processed.

Longest I have seen is a couple of years to debit & was a car park where the payments were not processed over a couple of months...
Also used to be common on airlines, where the in flight terminals were not connected to transfer purchases, after flight landed.

On the basis of accounts getting audited then revealing the failure, is 1 or maybe 2 years tops the limit, depending on how the annual window fell?  Surely nothing can surface beyond 2 years?

Ergates

ColdIron said:

sheenas said:

Normal it is pending for 7 days, then pending  status is reversed out. 

It's not pending

Roy1234 said:

The transaction still hasn't reached my bank account.

The authorisation request that comes through initially (that causes a "pending" notice to appear on your account) isn't the transaction.

If this didn't go through, and there is/was no pending, then the retailer's card machine should have errored (as it means the transaction wasn't authorised).