Daughter can't access 'cash' that I put into her account

OilyRag_3

Hello all,

My daughter just started a job on Monday that entails her travelling some distances by train occassionally, with the need for taxi fares, food etc. at her destination.

To help her cover her 1st month before seeing a wage or getting any expenses back I electronicaly sent her £500 on Sunday, -which she won't need until it's cleared with her bank-, and put £200.00 cash into her account, -her own branch-.

On Sat. she paid, -via internet-, with money she already had in her account ~£120 for 3 return rail tickets from Glasgow, after the transacion she checked and her remaining balance was only 10's of £, but she had enough cash on her to cover food and taxi's for the Monday.

On Tuesday having arrived at her destination she visited a bank to get some cash only to find that the amount she wanted was not available to her!

There was a 'pending' payment for the £120 to the rail company, and the bank felt it it's duty not to allow her at the money until the 'pending' was sorted out!!! When she phoned then they did however tell her that a 'fax from the rail company would sort it out there and then.

She phoned the rail company, who's response was not to worry about it and it would sort itself within 72 hours!!!!!!!

Now this makes my blood boil, she find herself a fair distance away from home and -it seems-, because of some incompetence in a computer(operator) somewhere, her bank freezes her funds!

How can this be legal, can anyone just get a 'pending' placed on your account, she only authorized 1 tranaction with the rail company, how can they submit two (she is used to buying rail tickets over the internet)?

Who should she be venting off at, the bank or the rail company or both?

Has anyone got any advice as to how to go about causing the maximum amount of hassle for the offending rail co./bank?

thanks

simgranny

It's all a bit complicated to follow but from what you say, your daughter checked her bank balance after the rail transaction and found it to be only 10's of pounds.
How soon after did she check it ? Maybe the money for the rail fares had not left her account yet and there was not enough there to cover the transaction. This might explain the 'pending' payment (or do you know for a fact that they submitted two payments instead of one). I might be totally wrong about this, but it might just be worth double checking before complaining.

OilyRag_3

Sorry if I confused the issue.

1> She had +/- £150 in her account on Sat
2> She bought and paid her rail ticket with that, checking it had been taken from the account.
3> I passed £500 to her account on Sunday, electronically
4> I paid £200 into her account Monday
5> On Tuesday she expected to have the £30 remaining and £200 I had paid in
6> On Tuesday she wanted to remove £200 but was unable to because there was now a 2nd £120 'pending' to the rail co.


Bank suggested a fax from the rail company would free up the funds

Rail co. suggested there wasn't a problem and it would be refunded in 72 hours, not being interested in the fax option.

Me having gone to the trouble of trying to get her sufficiant funds to cover her expenses, I just feel a TAD angry.

Thanks for your time.

mountainofdebt

In fairness I can't see the problem.

If the only way your daughter could pay for the tickets is by cash then she would have had to withdraw that amount and therefore it wouldn't be available for her to spend .....as it wasn't then.

If its any help then look at it as the bank reserving the money that your daughter has spent and therefore the funds aren't available...thus preventing your daughter thinking she has more money than she actually has.

This obviously isn't a unique situation and I suspect that this way of dealing with available funds is only becoming apparent as your daughter is watching her account more closely.

Also unless you bank with the same bank as your daughter then your funds won't ber in her account until today (Wednesday)

nellytheelephant

mountainofdebt wrote: »

In fairness I can't see the problem.

If the only way your daughter could pay for the tickets is by cash then she would have had to withdraw that amount and therefore it wouldn't be available for her to spend .....as it wasn't then.

If its any help then look at it as the bank reserving the money that your daughter has spent and therefore the funds aren't available...thus preventing your daughter thinking she has more money than she actually has.

This obviously isn't a unique situation and I suspect that this way of dealing with available funds is only becoming apparent as your daughter is watching her account more closely.

Also unless you bank with the same bank as your daughter then your funds won't ber in her account until today (Wednesday)

I'm not sure what you mean?

From what I understood, her daughter had £150 in her account and spent £120 leaving her with £30, but when she got to the bank the train company had put the transaction through again - leaving her with -£90?

So rather than reserving funds that have been spent, they have reserved double that amount as such.

Am I reading it right? x

pinkshoes

mountainofdebt wrote: »

In fairness I can't see the problem.

If the only way your daughter could pay for the tickets is by cash then she would have had to withdraw that amount and therefore it wouldn't be available for her to spend .....as it wasn't then.

If its any help then look at it as the bank reserving the money that your daughter has spent and therefore the funds aren't available...thus preventing your daughter thinking she has more money than she actually has.

This obviously isn't a unique situation and I suspect that this way of dealing with available funds is only becoming apparent as your daughter is watching her account more closely.

Also unless you bank with the same bank as your daughter then your funds won't ber in her account until today (Wednesday)

I think the OP meant the train company had taken the £120 for the traintickets bought online, then were trying to take it AGAIN, so trying to take the money twice for once transaction. Obviously there wasn't enough for the money to be taken twice, so the account was frozen.

I would take this up with the rail company. Did she use the back button when buying tickets and somehow manage to submit the purchase twice?

PasturesNew

Off topic a bit, I wouldn't travel for a company that expected me to sub their business costs. Not that I was ever in a position to. But I'd ask an employer to pay for these things up front and sub me some cash for incidental expenses.

I find the worst employers for not paying for things up front tend to be those that are paying shoddy wages in the first instance, so the employee is unlikely to be able to afford to sub their employer in the first instance.

C_Ronaldo

OP has your daughter tried to get a job closer to home,