Bank fraud

Briefly, 2 days ago I booked a hotel room for the first couple of nights of my holiday overseas for £83 online. The hotel has now tried to take an additional £3330 which I did not authorise.

This money is still in my account but HSBC refuses to stop this payment even though I have not authorised it. They have told me that UK banking regulations guarantee such a payment from my account whether or not it has been authorised by me.

The bank say they won’t even try to recover this money until they have let the money go out of my account and that I will be out of pocket and overdrawn for at least the next 7 days.

I now have no money and a large overdraft and HSBC have advised me to use my savings in the meantime. I am due to go on holiday on Sunday, but because I am now overdrawn by thousands, I may not be able to go.

So, it seems that someone is about to steal money from me and the bank is going to stand by and let them, leaving all the problems with me. How can this be right or fair?
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  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344
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    This money is still in my account but HSBC refuses to stop this payment even though I have not authorised it. They have told me that UK banking regulations guarantee such a payment from my account whether or not it has been authorised by me.

    I very much doubt if they told you this, but if they did you must have been speaking to a complete numpty. I would suggest that you call them again and try to speak to someone who know what they are talking about.

    In this situation I would be very tempted to go into a branch and make a fuss until somebody starts to pay attention.
  • anto164
    anto164 Posts: 174
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    I had the same last week but for a different amount. What the bank said to me (Halifax) is that they had to allow the transaction to go through to be able to refund me (which took 2 days).
    #

    What i would say, is surely if there are overdrawn fees etc that are attributed to this fraudulent transaction, then the bank should refund these.

    Phone them back and speak to them, or go into branch.
  • JuicyJesus
    JuicyJesus Posts: 3,829
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    The bank are right. As far as they are concerned the hotel has reserved that money because it intends to take it. If they were to remove the authorisation that payment could go through and leave you massively overdrawn. Or it could not. HSBC have no way of knowing. They also don't know that you haven't actually booked a £3k hotel room. They can't raise a chargeback or a dispute or fraud claim since no money has actually been taken, only authorised. Your issue here is with the hotel - what have they said about why they've authorised this amount?

    It may not even actually be fraud, since unfortunately hotels do things like this in that they preauthorise large amounts of money in advance of your stay which are never actually debited from your account, which is why it's a good idea not to book hotels using your debit card. Use a credit card instead.
    urs sinserly,
    ~~joosy jeezus~~
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 16,288
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    Briefly, 2 days ago I booked a hotel room for the first couple of nights of my holiday overseas for £83 online. The hotel has now tried to take an additional £3330 which I did not authorise.

    You could ask your bank if it's a "pre-authorisation" or "hold" - but it seems like a huge amount, and it's not normally taken until you get to the hotel. Many of the big hotel chains do it.

    Essentially, they ask the bank to pre-authorise an amount on your card - if you've pre-paid, it's normally to cover extras like food, bar etc. If you don't buy any extras, it will never appear as an actual charge on your card, and eventually the pre-authorisation will drop off.

    Here's some info from one chain (it applies to debit cards as well as credit cards) : https://www.radissonblu-edwardian.com/customerservice/policy/q7

    If it is a pre-authorisation, ask the hotel to reduce it and/or cancel it until you arrive.
  • Thanks for everyone's really helpful replies. I think what's happened is that the overseas hotel, their bank or HSBC may have charged me in pounds sterling rather than their own currency. Still doesn't alter the fact that my bank are unable or unwilling to do anything about it until someone other than me tells them it's not an authorised payment. Doesn't seem fair...
  • Jhoney_2
    Jhoney_2 Posts: 1,198 Forumite
    edited 9 March 2017 at 4:40PM
    "Doesn't seem fair...."

    Yet your title states 'fraud' and your last paragraphin OP says someone(or organisation) was about to 'steal' from you.

    Do you see the irony?

    The processes of your bank have been covered in another post, but if it has highlighted a problem with your banking requirements/expectations, it can only be a good thing.
  • Thanks Jhoney. Indeed it has highlighted a problem with my banking expectations - I expect my bank not to make payments to third parties that I haven't authorised and when requested to stop a payment before it leaves my account, to do so. Is that so unreasonable?
  • This isn't fraud
    DEBT FREE!

    Debt free by Xmas 2014: £3555.67/£4805.67 (73.99%)
    Debt free by Xmas 2015: £1250/£1250 (100.00%)
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898
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    You seem to be under the impression that the bank is at fault here - but in fact it is the originator of the payment that is at fault.
    You gave them your debit card number did you not?
  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 23,058
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    edited 9 March 2017 at 8:45PM
    Thanks Jhoney. Indeed it has highlighted a problem with my banking expectations - I expect my bank not to make payments to third parties that I haven't authorised and when requested to stop a payment before it leaves my account, to do so. Is that so unreasonable?
    Your previous posts state the payment has not been made. So the part that you misunderstood is that banks will not stop payments before they are made.

    It does seem a little unreasonable on your part to expect the bank to refund a payment that has not been taken yet and may never be taken. In your T&Cs, you'll probably see that the bank agrees to take responsibility for any unauthorised payments taken from your account. You'll probably not see anything about them agreeing to block pending payments that you claim were unauthorised and I don't see any reason to believe they would have the power to do so, even if they wanted to.
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