Transaction Times

Sheils1

Has anyone noticed that when you use you laser or credit card, the charges hit your bank account before the end of the day?

Use my card 3 times today and checked my bank account just now and the money has been taken out of my account. In the by-gone era for the "tiger" it could take a number of days for the transaction to go through.

I have worked in an accounts office and it normally takes at least 2 days for the money to go into the retailers account so what is happening in the meantime....are the banks using that cash for other purposes? are they using it on the markets or wherever to make more money for themselves?

Random

What bank are you with?

I'm with AIB and any Laser transaction is debited from my account balance instantly but the explanation does not appear on my statement for 24-72 hours.

Toots

This is because the Laser system has gone live now with some banks. Back in the day, it was very easy to overspend because the transactions took so long to hit the account. What happens now is when you do a transaction a 'hold' is placed on the money (so your account shows that it is debited from your balance) while the transaction is processing and once it is posted, the retailer details are shown up on your account. If the retailer has voided the transaction, for whatever reason, the transaction will drop off your account and the funds will be available to you again.

This has always been the situation with Credit Cards, however it has been introduced on Laser card systems recently.

chasm

I'm with AIB and i still have to wait a few days for any transactions i make to show up online. It is a bit of a pain as i have forgotten about a couple of transactions only for them to appear 4 days later on my account. Luckily they were small enough amounts.