Any advice please :-)

Esoog

Greetings, I've been trying to check my balance of my HSBC credit online for the last day or two, however when I click on the balance it tells me;

There are currently no transactions on your account to display. Please select an option from the left-hand menu to continue.

Now, I know there are recent transactions, so I rang HSBC to check on it. I finally got through to a nice lady in India who told me the last transaction she could see (all previous were on previous statement so she couldn't see them?) was for £1. Now I honestly can't think of anything I'd use my CC for to pay £1 and I remember hearing that sometimes when people get hold of your details they test them first with a small amount (the woman couldn't tell me who the payment was to, apparently that will show up in a few days????).

What do you reckon I should do? I was slightly suspcious by the fact that I can't view any transactions but this might be just because its around the time they generate a statement? I did tell the woman on the phone I didnt think I'd make a payment of £1 but she wasn't really interested. My balance on the card is pretty much right at the moment.

If someone has got my details and uses them, am I covered for fraud or what? Should I ring the card hotline and tell them now? ( I did just put £325 on there yesterday to clear off some debt! Dont fancy giving someone another £300 to play with!!)

Bismarck

Barclaycard put a pending of £1 when there's a balance transfer in the process system....don't know if that's relevant at all...hope you get to the bottom of it....

Esoog

I did a balance transfer a while ago, but its cleared now so don't think thats it. Cheers anyway.

Spark

I have a Barclaycard and sometimes I have £1 pending transaction coming up for no reason, then it's vanishing a few days later. I do not think that you will know for sure until the transaction shows up on your statement or the £1 pending transaction disappear. Just check your account every day until something shows, if it shows as a transaction and you don't remember or recognise the recipient ring HSBC straight away and tell them, they would probably block your account and send you a new card.

MPH80

Spark - the reason for those pending transactions is because they are what are called 'pre-auths'.

This is where a company authenticates your card for a given amount. This amount then drops off the cards a number of days later (usually 7). A lot of online companies will do it simply to check the card is valid and it has *some* funds (even if not all they require). It helps them cut down on chargebacks.

Hotels can use this technique too - although many will actually charge the card and then refund.

M.

Spark

MPH80, I'll have to remember that, I personally wasn't worried as I did see a threat about it a good while ago talking about it, without mentioning the reason behind it. I know a few people might be worrying about it, and I did heard of those small transactions that fraudsters use to check the cards.
I would still check on it until it disappear, as you never know, better be safe than sorry.