Unauthorised Overdraft.

[QUOTH]

OK, 1st off i know this is my fault, dosent mean i'm not bitter being out £100 sterling.


So I shop occasionally online, mainly ebay with paypal, and I'm not working atm so no overdraft. I'm used to getting "payment failed" messages when i'm out of cash.

So in the last few days Ive splashed out on a few hundred pounds of tech from ebuyer, and some small bits off of ebay.

I get aletter today saying i have made 3 payments which i don't have money for, and they are going to charge me over £100 sterling.


I ring up the bank and they say it's my fault, It seems that they will authorise payments which will put me in the negative. This has NEVER happened to me before on this card.


So I'm pretty annoyed. Any suggestions? Complain? Email Ebuyer? Email paypal?


Q Pretty upset with a busted PC and negative funds.


*UPDATE*

 

[Mermaidman]

You better spray on some fire retardant.

Why and how could a vendor check your account balance? I'd be pissed if my bank tells a 3rd party what my account balance is.

 

[mugs]

Don't know about over there, but over here if it's your first time the bank will usually refund all but one or even all of the overdraft fees if you ask nicely.

 

[Snapster]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
You better spray on some fire retardant.

Why and how could a vendor check your account balance? I'd be pissed if my bank tells a 3rd party what my account balance is.

They can't check, they'll only get a denied from the bank which could indicate a lack of funds or authorisation of funds.

As for quoth, it is your fault for not checking funds, and I'm sure it will explicitly say that you check you have funds in your account before you click submit on the ebuyer cart...at least from what I remember.

The charges if deemed unfair can be fought against with the bank. If you wish to make a claim get in touch with your bank and advise them that you believe that you have been unfairly charged and are thinking of pursuing this, although you may be asked for proof of this I.E statements. As you're in uk you've probably heard of all the press about unauthorised and unfair overdraft charges in the past 2 years.

btw, who do you bank with so I never touch them, last time I had trouble was with Bank of Scotland who I promptly dropped.

 

[TheKub]

Hmmmm.... Smells like bait.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: QUOTH
OK, 1st off i know this is my fault, dosent mean i'm not bitter being out £100 sterling.

So I shop occasionally online, mainly ebay with paypal, and I'm not working atm. I'm used to getting "payment failed" messages when i'm out of cash.

So in the last few days Ive splashed out on a few hundred pounds of tech from ebuyer, and some small bits off of ebay.

I get aletter today saying i have made 3 payments which i don't have money for, and they are going to charge me over £100 sterling.


I ring up the bank and they say it's my fault, The online shop shouldve checked with the bank to see if i had the money so this wouldnt have happened.


So I'm pretty annoyed. Any suggestions? Complain? Email Ebuyer? Email paypal?


Q Pretty upset with a busted PC and negative funds.

1) why are u using your bank acct? NEVER use your bank acct (ncluding debit card). use a credit card.

never give any company access to your bank. credit cards provide a layer of protection. credit also prevent stupid people (apparently, like u) from overdrafting because they dont keep track of their $.

it's YOUR responsiblilty to keep track of whats in YOUR acct, noob.

grow up and get some common sense.

god, the sense of entitlement is high in this one. altho not as high as the person who said he's pissed that his company is forcing him to take a sick or pto day incase of snow. like he's expected to get paid for free for staying home.

sheesh................

2) have a nice day

 

[Mark R]

Only real-time electronic transactions are blocked if there are insufficient funds.

A normal Visa debit, or Maestro (switch) card have the facility to be used in 'off-line' transactions. An offline transaction can happen for lots of reasons - maybe the vendor didn't have their equipment online at the time, maybe the banks had a computer glitch, etc. The transaction may be accepted, even if the vendor's equipment isn't able to get a real time authorization from your bank. Essentially, it's a bit like the old mechanical swipe thing that stamped your card number into the paper voucher. Even a chip&pin transaction doesn't have to be 'on-line' - the chip in the card verifies the PIN and authorizes the transaction.

Because these cards don't *have* to be authorized electronically in real-time, they are a bit like writing a cheque. In that you still owe the money, even if you didn't have it in the account.

Some cards are designed for people with poor credit - things like Visa Electron and Solo cards. These cards *only* work in 'on-line' transactions - they don't have the raised numbers - and fewer places can accept them because they require more expensive on-line handling capabilities. There's no way to get overdrawn with one of these cards.

Basically, someone (or a machine) at your bank made a decision that you would rather make the payment, and save you the embarassment of having the payment declined. For that they set up an emergency overdraft and provided you with an emergency loan. You then had to pay for that.

You could try going back to the bank, and saying that you think the charges are unfair and that this was the first time, and that you'll take your business elsewhere, blah blah and see where that gets you.

However, if you really want to avoid this problem in future, either:
1) Keep a grip on your finances so that you don't attempt to spend money that you don't have
or
2) Tell your bank that they are not to provide an unauthorized overdraft, and that they should bounce the payments instead (unless the payments are guaranteed), and that you want to change your debit card to a solo or electron card.

 

[imported_Baloo]

I don't get why you call it unauthorized when your the one that did it.

 

[alkemyst]

 

[QUOTH]

It's anauthorised overdraft because i don't have an overdraft, last time i asked they wouldn't give me one bacuse i'm not working atm.

I'm with halifax. They cancelled 4 of the 6 [some of them as small as £2]

I was pretty confident i had the funds, seems I did my maths wrong. I am now sorted with online banking so i can check my balance.


I wouldn't be at all annoyed if i knew this could happen. In the past I've just been refused and payed a different way, and I relied on this as a back up. It seems my bank dosen't stop authorisation due to lack of funds. This has NEVER happened to me before on this card.

The guy from halifax implied that this has changed. I wouldn't have minded as much if they had sent me a letter.

So are all banks like this, or if you don't have the funds will they not authorise the payment?

 

[gramboh]

Why are you buying computer parts when you are unemployed?

 

[txrandom]

It's the American dream to purchase over your means and let Uncle Sam help you the rest of the way.

 

[KK]

You talk funny.

 

[compman25]

So you're an ass who bids and wins auctions without the intent to pay?

 

[QUOTH]

Originally posted by: compman25
So you're an ass who bids and wins auctions without the intent to pay?

Nope, I made it clear I pay another way. I have 100% on 400 purchases.

To be clear I'm not looking for hugs and sympathy, I'm also not looking for flames and insults. I made it clear I know it's my fault, I'm not saying I'm perfect. I just want to know whats going on.

I'm just trying to get some info on bank practises. Some posts [which i'm greatful for] have reflected the nature of advice i have recieved in the rest of the forum, the rest I'm kinda shocked with. But to be fair to those posters the topic head does sound abit whiney I was annoyed, I'm calmer now.

I actually don't know much about the current UK unorthorised overdraft issues/legal debate.

It's safe to say the blow to my bank account is enough to make me more careful in the future, so lesson learned.


Still want to know if this is normal [on debit card with no overdraft] or if it's my bank.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: QUOTH
Still want to know if this is normal [on debit card with no overdraft] or if it's my bank.

This is normal, and is because of the way debit cards work, and how the transactions are processed in the banks' payment clearing system.

It can take 3 days for payments on a debit card to "go through". This means that there is period when a transaction may be authorized, but when the money is actually debited, the funds aren't there. So if you buy 3 things on one day, the third authorization check is made on your balance before you bought the first thing. The other catch is that small transactions may not necessarily need to be authorized against your bank balance at the time they are made - only that the card details are valid.

This is unlike cash machine transactions, where bank takes the money direct from the account at the time of the transaction.

The use of 'electronic' debit cards such as solo and electron lower the risk of going overdrawn. These cards can only be used where the vendor electronically authorizes every transaction against your bank balance. However, I think they may still suffer from the 3 day thing.

The point is that debit cards cannot reliably protect you or the bank from going overdrawn - and no bank can offer a card that does.

 

[QUOTH]

Thanks, thats what I wanted to know.

Only £98 less then half of what it should've been, I got off pretty well