Duplicate Visa Payment

Eabhabear

Hi,
I am hoping someone here will have some experience with this. I purchased clothes in a well known high street store today, using my Visa Debit card. The first time the payment was declined but it went through no problem the second time. I was given my receipt and the decline receipt. It wasn't until I got home and checked to see the damage done that I realised that the store had put through the payment twice.

I went back to the store to be told that it is the banks fault. I rang the bank there and then and they said that it is the shops fault and that 2 payments definitely went through. The shop then told me that when your card is declined, the money is still taken out of the account and placed 'in reserve'. The bank told me that is a complete fabrication and the money should not have been taken out of my account twice. Anyway the shop are refusing to refund me until I have proof that it went through twice, which will be at least 2 days until I get that.

I have had my card declined before but this has never happened so I am wondering is it a new thing? Has this happened to anyone before and did the money go back in no problem? It is just annoying as I have quite a few bills to pay off this week and it is quite a bit of money. I have no idea what to do about it.

Nervous Wreck

When you make a payment on your Visa Debit card, the money gets put on hold. You'll see it on your online banking as a 'pending transaction'. This will be the difference between your 'account balance' and your 'available balance'. The way it works is, the merchant puts money on hold on your account. You get your receipt from the card machine and they keep their copy. They then send their copy to the bank to claim the funds. When this is done, the 'pending transaction' disappears and the completed transaction will show up on your statement.

The transaction will stay on hold for 7 days and, if not collected after the 7th day, will return to your available balance. So the question now is, is this transaction pending on your account or has it come completely out of your account? If it is still pending, the merchant can contact their bank and let them know that the money will not be drawn. That bank will then contact your bank and let them know that the funds can be returned to your available balance. Your bank can not do this without instruction from the merchant's bank as, by inputting your PIN, you have entered into a contract with the merchant.

Hope that helps.

Eabhabear

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

When you make a payment on your Visa Debit card, the money gets put on hold. You'll see it on your online banking as a 'pending transaction'. This will be the difference between your 'account balance' and your 'available balance'. The way it works is, the merchant puts money on hold on your account. You get your receipt from the card machine and they keep their copy. They then send their copy to the bank to claim the funds. When this is done, the 'pending transaction' disappears and the completed transaction will show up on your statement.

The transaction will stay on hold for 7 days and, if not collected after the 7th day, will return to your available balance. So the question now is, is this transaction pending on your account or has it come completely out of your account? If it is still pending, the merchant can contact their bank and let them know that the money will not be drawn. That bank will then contact your bank and let them know that the funds can be returned to your available balance. Your bank can not do this without instruction from the merchant's bank as, by inputting your PIN, you have entered into a contract with the merchant.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your reply. That is what the manager told me but I still have a few issues. Firstly, yes it is stated as a pending transaction but my bank balance still has the amount deducted from it. I do not have access to that cash until the pending amount is returned to my account. That is a lot of money to be without for 7 days. Secondly, I have contacted my bank and they have said that this is not normal practice and should not have happened. I have had my card declined before and it has never happened, so I don't understand why it happened today. Finally, I asked the manager to do what you suggested, ring the merchant bank, but she refused to as she said I didn't have a second receipt.

Sorry I don't mean to rant to you, I just don't understand how a shop is allowed to take double the amount out of my account. I only entered into a contract with then for €135 not €270.

Nervous Wreck

Eabhabear wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. That is what the manager told me but I still have a few issues. Firstly, yes it is stated as a pending transaction but my bank balance still has the amount deducted from it. I do not have access to that cash until the pending amount is returned to my account. That is a lot of money to be without for 7 days.

Yup. So, it hasn't been deducted from your account balance, just your available balance. This is the merchant's fault.

Eabhabear wrote: »

Secondly, I have contacted my bank and they have said that this is not normal practice and should not have happened.

That's bizarre. It is 100% normal practice for money to be put on hold until the merchant produces the receipt; that's how it works. If they meant it's not normal practice for a store to double a payment or put a payment on hold when the transaction is 'declined', then they're right about that; it shouldn't happen. But they should have explicitly stated that. But, as is, it is obviously down to the merchant. The bank didn't decline your transaction, the merchant did (as evident by the fact that the money was authorised on the bank's end) so it's the merchant who should be rectifying the matter.

Eabhabear wrote: »

I have had my card declined before and it has never happened, so I don't understand why it happened today.

Error at the terminal would be my guess.

Eabhabear wrote: »

Finally, I asked the manager to do what you suggested, ring the merchant bank, but she refused to as she said I didn't have a second receipt.

Again, bizarre. What receipt did she want you to produce? Surely she could have checked the receipts that the store has and conclude from them that there is only the one payment due. Sounds like she's either lazy or hasn't had to do it before and doesn't understand the process.

Eabhabear wrote: »

Sorry I don't mean to rant to you, I just don't understand how a shop is allowed to take double the amount out of my account. I only entered into a contract with then for €135 not €270.

Again, they haven't taken double the amount, they've put an authorisation hold on it.

wmpdd3

Was it an Ulster Bank VD? I have seen it happen nearly once a week with cards form Ulster bank, it happens with all the rest two but not nearly as much.

The customers bank usually blames a lost telephone connection or BB blip but thats not the case. Also it always seems to be for around €70 - €150, I only notice as thats not the most common transaction amount where I work.

But yes the amount is 'on hold' the merchant says they cant refund you as they dont actually have it and the bank says they cant release it as the merchant has a hold on it.

I have seen banks give 14 day overdrafts in some instances where the customer has been vocal.

kc90

It should be back in your account in a few days, but as above, if you need to make a payment before that, your bank might sort out a temporary overdraft.

01902

I have defiantly seen an authorisation code generated by the bank but return the transaction to the retailer as declined. Only the bank can speed up the process of unmarking the cash in your account, some banks are really helpful some are not and blame the retailer.

The money will unmark its self probably faster than trying to sort out it being sped up with the bank if you have had no luck with them helping you out so far.

Edit: Is the first receipt Declined or Void? Banks Decline transactions and Retailers Void them!

Eabhabear

Thanks for all your advice. I am still waiting on it to be sorted. My bank, AIB, gave me an authorisation code but the shop are still refusing to refund it until I can prove that it went through twice. It looks like it will be at least another week until I have access to the money. My bank have been extremely helpful. It is the shop that are dragging their heels. I'm just annoyed that it happened as this is not the norm in the case of a declined card.

rainbowtrout

Eabhabear wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice. I am still waiting on it to be sorted. My bank, AIB, gave me an authorisation code but the shop are still refusing to refund it until I can prove that it went through twice. It looks like it will be at least another week until I have access to the money. My bank have been extremely helpful. It is the shop that are dragging their heels. I'm just annoyed that it happened as this is not the norm in the case of a declined card.

The shop won't be refunding it. They don't have your money. You put your card in the machine, put it your pin, that created an authorisation on the €135. It then declined, but the authorisation that was created put a hold on the money. You then had the transaction put through again, this time it went through so the money was debited from your account. If they produced proof of payment to the bank the funds would then be released to them, that is not going to happen as it was declined and the authorisation will drop off the system in a couple of days and the money is then released to your account again.

You don't have proof that it went through twice, I would bet that when it was declined the first time that you were given the receipt from the machine that said 'Void Transaction' proving that they haven't taken payment.

It's a pain in the arse when it happens, particularly if you are short on funds but there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

And it is the norm, it's happened me loads of times.