Debit card transactions

Milarky

Am I right in thinking that debit card items [e.g. purchases/payments] don't appear on the date they are actually debited to an account - unlike other debits such as DDs, SOs and cheques- but do so the following day with the previous date shown?

Generally you get notice of a pending item - because the 'available' and 'account' balances don't tally [as they don't when paying in cheques, intially]. So the account should be topped up to always keep the available balance in the black.

grumbler

Many bank and CC companies show two dates for many transactions in the statement. Example (A&L):

17/06/2005 CARD PMNT 16JUN ALDI STORES LT
16/06/2005 CASH MACHINE 16JUN LLOYDS
15/06/2005 TRANSFER ON 14JUN
10/06/2005 CARD PMNT 09JUN ALDI STORES LT
09/06/2005 CASH MACHINE 09JUN BARCLAYS
03/06/2005 CARD PMNT 02JUN ALDI STORES LT
02/06/2005 CASH MACHINE 02JUN BARCLAYS
01/06/2005 CASH MACHINE 01JUN A&L
31/05/2005 TRANSFER ON 31MAY
28/05/2005 CARD PMNT 26MAY ALDI STORES LT
26/05/2005 CASH MACHINE 26MAY BARCLAYS

You can see that delay can be 2 days (and even more)

MBNA shows two dates too:

Transaction Date Usually the date that you authorise a merchant or bank to process a transaction on your credit card account. For Credit Card Cheques, this would be the date that the payee deposits or cashes the cheque.

Posting Date The date that a transaction is posted to your account. This date may be later than the Transaction Date.

jimmyjim_uk

grumbler is right, I have waited a week after using my debit card for the money to be taken.

bargains83

jimmyjim_uk wrote:

grumbler is right, I have waited a week after using my debit card for the money to be taken.

I bought some food from a cafe at an airport in March and my available balance was reduced by the amount of the transaction. 3 days later the amount of the transaction was put back onto my available balance and thus spendable. Then after a whole month the transaction finally appeared on my statement and the amount taken from my account.

Here is the actual transaction:

Thu 14th Apr - DCARD - Payment to TAKE OFF BUFFET on 13th Mar

and this was on a VISA Electron card!!!!!!!

Its transactions like this that make the point of having Electron and Visa as 2 seperate cards seem pretty pointless to me as if you don't run your account properly you could get in just as much trouble with either type if you don't manage your account properly.

Bubba_Shaboo

bargains83 wrote:

I bought some food from a cafe at an airport in March and my available balance was reduced by the amount of the transaction. 3 days later the amount of the transaction was put back onto my available balance and thus spendable. Then after a whole month the transaction finally appeared on my statement and the amount taken from my account.

Here is the actual transaction:

Thu 14th Apr - DCARD - Payment to TAKE OFF BUFFET on 13th Mar

and this was on a VISA Electron card!!!!!!!

Its transactions like this that make the point of having Electron and Visa as 2 seperate cards seem pretty pointless to me as if you don't run your account properly you could get in just as much trouble with either type if you don't manage your account properly.

Similar thing here. I only have a Visa Electron card and for ages only used it for getting money out of the hole in the wall because retailers wouldn't accept it for on-line shopping. Recently I've seen several sites that accept this card and I actually used it to buy some 'poverty' wrist bands. The transaction went through okay and a balance from the hole in the wall a couple of days later showed the money was 'reserved' but then mysteriously a few days later the money was 'available' again and a statement showed no debit for the bands. By now they had turned up so I queried it with Barclays telephone banking and they could find no record of any transaction. I phoned the people who supplied the wrist bands and they said they didn't have any records as it was dealt with by someone else (Worldpay or something???). So basically I just gave up but approx one month later the debit mysteriously went through.

As you say, it makes budgeting a little difficult not quite knowing when a debit is going to go through!

Cheers,

Bubba.

Milarky

This highlights the real benefits of a credit card over a debit card IMO. With the former you get a 'consolidated' statement of spending and have 2 to 3 weeks to pay. As collection is by direct debit, you can easily 'budget' for this once-monthly event. by comparison with debit cards [which use a common network of logging transactions] the same items trickle through one at a time - and sometimes not at all. If the particular merchants don't present the transactions promptly, during a statement period for a credit card, that isn't a problem for the cardholder - thety just get to pay later [I assume]

davidcampbell

after an authorisation is made, it stays pending for 3 working days. within this time most transactions will be claimed by the retailer in question. after this the pending authorisation is cancelled regardless.

the retailer can choose to debit a payment any time they want to - there is no requirement for it to be collected within the 3 days if they dont want to.

debit card transactions will only appear on your statement once they have been collected. the bank have no control over when that will be but as pointed out most will post the actual purchase date as well.

DC

bargains83

davidcampbell wrote:

after an authorisation is made, it stays pending for 3 working days. within this time most transactions will be claimed by the retailer in question. after this the pending authorisation is cancelled regardless.

the retailer can choose to debit a payment any time they want to - there is no requirement for it to be collected within the 3 days if they dont want to.

debit card transactions will only appear on your statement once they have been collected. the bank have no control over when that will be but as pointed out most will post the actual purchase date as well.

DC

So then why do we Have Visa and Visa Electron and Switch and Solo?

As I understood it, Electron and Solo were meant to be the cut-down versions of their older brothers and were originally intended as debit products for minors and people on low incomes or not able to manage their accounts properly.

To me this thread has simply highlighted the fact that the only real difference between the big two and little two is that they are accepted in less places.

Bossyboots

Milarky wrote:

This highlights the real benefits of a credit card over a debit card IMO. With the former you get a 'consolidated' statement of spending and have 2 to 3 weeks to pay. As collection is by direct debit, you can easily 'budget' for this once-monthly event. by comparison with debit cards [which use a common network of logging transactions] the same items trickle through one at a time - and sometimes not at all. If the particular merchants don't present the transactions promptly, during a statement period for a credit card, that isn't a problem for the cardholder - thety just get to pay later [I assume]

It still comes as a shock when a trader doesn't process your payment for three months and then it comes onto the statement with all your Christmas spending!

davidcampbell

bargains83 wrote:

So then why do we Have Visa and Visa Electron and Switch and Solo?

As I understood it, Electron and Solo were meant to be the cut-down versions of their older brothers and were originally intended as debit products for minors and people on low incomes or not able to manage their accounts properly.

To me this thread has simply highlighted the fact that the only real difference between the big two and little two is that they are accepted in less places.

well yes, visa electron and solo are effectively "little brothers" (and sisters, and nieces and nephews :rotfl: ) of delta and switch.

ultimately the only differences between the two are levels of acceptance and the fact that visa/switch usually has a cheq guarantee facility.

electron and solo are supposed to be checked for every transaction and the terms of your bank acc probably allude to this. however when a transaction is made that individual retailer can authorise it automatically on their system or check with the bank for available funds. this choice is made depending on whether the value of the transaction is below that retailers "floor limit" which they set in conjunction with their own merchant bank. if it does fall below the floor limit then that transaction will go through regardless and your bank cannot decline it because they do not find out about it. if about floor limit it will be declined as normal.

for electron/solo the floor limit should be zero but frequently it is not and this is why people can still overspend. ultimately though the onus is on the customer to ensure they are not using the card unless there are sufficient funds in the account.

hth
DC