Abbey Double Debited Card Transactions?

bargains83

Upon checking my online banking today, I am nearly £3000 overdrawn on the available balance. At 8PM last night before their systems update with the next days transactions (this is usually around 9/10PM every night) I was £300 in credit on the available account balance. Upon logging into online banking last night at around 11PM I noticed the available balance had changed to being nearly 3k overdrawn.

I hardly slept last night thinking about it and couldn't understand what could possibly have happened. Surely not card fraud in the space of 3 hours checking my online banking?.

Anyway Today i've been doing some drastic calculations.

I made a debit card transaction to the value of £2.5k on wednesday and one or two other smaller value transactions. The money was there to process these transactions on both the available and account balance. Transactions are removed from the available balance immediately most of the time and I always login to online banking to check that this has happened so I don't overspend. 2 days later they come of the 'account balance' and show on the statement. All the purchases from wednesday show in todays (fridays) transactions on the statement as debit card purchases made on Wednesday. So that is all correct.

What it seems has happened is they have processed the transactions to the statement once AND taken the same off my 'available balance' again therefore processing the transactions once on the 'statement balance' and TWICE on the 'available balance' leaving me drastically unauthorised overdrawn.

My calulations seem to support this as it adds up right down to the last penny.

My cards are now unusable because I have such a large unauthorised overdraft that shouldn't be there.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?, I really don't want to try explaining this to an indian call centre as its so complicated. Its hard enough getting abbey CS to do simple things!.

ShelfStacker_3

If your statement balance hasn't gone down, you're not strictly overdrawn. It might just be a rogue authorisation, which might drop off in the next couple of days. Call Abbey to confirm and possibly warn them and they might be able to help you further. But right now, don't panic, it should be alright in the end.

Wait to see if it hits your statement, as they may well refuse to do anything anyway if it's just an authorisation.

[Deleted User]

ShelfStacker wrote: »

It might just be a rogue authorisation, which might drop off in the next couple of days..

I agree this happens a lot, authorisations that are there but never leave the account, don't ask me why this happens but it happens a lot.

bargains83

I've never experienced it before, i've had authorisations made then the money credited back on the available balance when they don't collect on the authorisation within 2 or 3 days only for it to be just taken out of the account a few days after that.

This looks to me like they've authorised all my transactions for wednesday twice, but only collected on one of the authorisations but the duplicate authorisation is still holding on my available balance. But that doesn't seem right as my available balance was correct until yesterday evening when Wednesday's transactions were added to the statement. Will be interesting to see if anything shows on the statement later this evening/tomorrow.

I can't really contact them until something shows up or doesn't because I already know the call centre will tell me to 'wait a few days'.

I think something is afoot because on logging into ebanking when navigating between statements and the balance pages ocassionally I am getting the message:

e-Banking

This service is currently unavailable, we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please try again later.

Santanders new computer system seems like it was a waste of money for Abbey, its reliability is terrible.

bargains83

Somethings Happening with this now:

Account Balance: £4227.98
Available Balance: £-1632.02

Before it was:

Account Balance: £4227.98
Available Balance: £-2782.02

The statements have not changed, this is the same as last night and the last transaction on the statement takes the account balance to £4227.98 this is also the same as last night and hasn't moved. Usually transactions never appear in statements on online banking until after midnight but both figures on the balance pages update throughout the evening preceeding.

So £1150 difference? and it certainly looks like a rogue authorisation since the actual account balance hasn't changed. I definately haven't made any purchase of that amount recently, this is completely bizzare. I will be keeping an eye on it over the next few hours.

Mikeyorks

bargains83 wrote: »

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Similar .... but only on a Credit Card. It occurred several times. It's where an amount is authorised ... therefore it's removed from the available balance? But when the actual transaction comes through, a couple of days later, it fails to precisely match up with the transaction your Bank has authorised. So it debits your statement balance .... whilst still remaining as a debit on the available balance! So you get an apparent duplicate transaction.
In the background however - the software has recognised that the transaction was of a value that should have been authorised? So it creates an exception report for manual examination by the exception staff. They take several days to get round to it ... but then can see (normally a retailer problem) the transaction was the same ... and remove the 'reservation' thereby increasing the available balance.

From your OP (several transactions .. which you tied to the penny?) .. can only be an Abbey process problem .... unless all purchases were from the same retailer? Go into the local Branch .... you may find a queue of similarly irritated and anxious customers.

Incidentally :-

Somethings Happening with this now:

Account Balance: £4227.98
Available Balance: £-1632.02

..... my arithmetic makes that a transaction of £5860.00 ... on it's way through?

bargains83

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Incidentally :-


..... my arithmetic makes that a transaction of £5860.00 ... on it's way through?

More than that actually, I have a £950 authorised overdraft and this only ever reflects on the available balance, not the account balance so its actually £6810. :eek:

Some very scary figures in existance here, I've never spent anything like that much!. It must be several transactions that have been replicated by mistake.

Mikeyorks

Hmmmm .... very much pushes it in the direction of an Abbey process problem. But if I was you ..... I would be hitting the 'phone just in case?? A lot of people on here are with Abbey .... and no one else is joining in?

bargains83

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Hmmmm .... very much pushes it in the direction of an Abbey process problem. But if I was you ..... I would be hitting the 'phone just in case?? A lot of people on here are with Abbey .... and no one else is joining in?

I know they'll just tell me to wait until/see if something shows on the statement though, In the past i've heard of them not even being able to tell people who an outstanding authorisation is going to. The common line is 'wait a few days until your statement updates'.

I used my card at tescos yesterday afternoon and that transaction should appear on the statements at midnight, as should anything else untoward from wednesday/thursday.

If there is anything untoward, another member on here has PM'd me and will give me a number for a direct-line to a UK call centre for abbey so I don't have to deal with india. I don't think this is a problem that they'll be able to solve from a script. I need to talk to someone who knows 100% what they are doing.

If the problem sorts itself out overnight, I think I will write them a letter detailing my experience and asking them what the problem was.

bargains83

Somethings really jiggered here:

I've just been monitoring my balances over the last hour:

8:30PM
Account: £4227.98
Available: £-2782.02

9:00PM
Account: £4227.98
Available: £-1632.02

9:15PM
Account: £4347.98
Available: £-1512.02

9:30PM
Account: £1737.98
Available: £-4,122.02

Now i've just been calculating again. On wednesday my transactions were £2500 and another two transactions, one for £100 paid into an online casino, and £110 was paid back. take the £2600 away from £4227.98 and you get £1627.98. Add the £110 that was refunded back to that and you get £1737.98.

That proves that the transactions I have completed have gone through to the account and have been processed and they are correct.

So how the hell can my available balance be £-4,122.02?

I just don't get it at all, how do I explain this to someone when I call them?.

In my mind, and from my calculations my balance should be £1737.98 (which it now is) and my available balance should be £2687.98 because I have a £950.00 overdraft. Therefore there is a discrepancy of £6810 which is the figure I quoted in post #7!

Edit: I think I've solved it!, Anything that appears on my statements seems to be subtracting from the available balance in the same way as the account balance which has therefore made the available balance go into such large negative figures. Evidently this is a flaw in their new system which somewhere in its 'coding' it is making the mistake of updating both balances in the same manor.

My guess is they have 'tweaked' something, possibly to solve the problem their currently having of charging people Instant Overdraft interest when they shouldn't be and made an even bigger mess of it.

Surely I'm not the only one experiencing this?, Can any other abbey customers check their online banking and confirm whether their account balances are correct?.

bargains83

Checked online statements and everything is present and correct. Nothing at all out of place.

Available Balance is still showing as £-4122.02 though and my debit card is still being declined.

Looks like a phone call in the morning, but god knows how im gonna put this into speech. Saying that though, I shouldn't have to.