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I have a question regarding Lloyds TSB Visa/Electron debit card. Several months ago, I was buying bit and bobs on the internet, relying on the fact that a DEBIT card would say 'insufficient funds' when purchasing objects online.
All of the payment gateways I used, 'checked' the bank (so they said) for funds, then debited me.
When I found out in the morning that I spent about £800 before the payments stopped due to insufficient funds, I found out that I was £700 odd in credit.
Is this allowed? Surely a debit card lives by its name and only debits your account? Lloyds TSB stated that they saw that I was earning enough to pay off 'what was borrowed' and graciously allowed this without consent.
When I signed up with Lloyds TSB, I remember stricly asking the person at the desk to only give me a credit card as I do not wish to go into any debt.
They gladly gave me the account, a week later came the Visa/Electron debit card and that was that.
This all worked well until I used it online. I relied on the fact that the bank would refuse payment if I was trying to go past teh zero mark.
Infact, what happened is that they let me shoot £650 into the minus before they refused any payments.
Could someone explain this to me? I've spoken to the bank about it, and explained that I wanted a debit card for that exact reason. They laughed it off, told me to be more careful and sent me on my way?
Surely a debit card only debits your accout until the maximum allowed limit is reached?
I know sometimes that payments dont go off your account instantly (especialy online) and then when other debits go out of your account it puts you overdrawn when the online transactions finally go through. This happens to me sometimes, so i just make sure the money is available, ie check what is going out over the next 5 days first.
I still dont understand. I've tried using my old card, which is still in date, but deactivated, on the same payment sites, and it doesn't allow me to make a transaction.
The error I get is:
"Payment not accepted, please contact your card issuer to resolve this..."
Which means that checks are done?
Surely they also check to see if someone has the money?
Just read your posts and I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. If you have say £700 in your current account and purchase something online for £200 this is put on hold as the transaction will actually take a couple of days to come out of your account and when checks are done by the online company, your account will show £700 balance. However, if you have for instance a mortgage payment or other direct debits going out around the same time this will affect your balance so it will put you overdrawn. The best way to avoid this is to check your account frequently as there's always someone waiting in the wings to snatch your money when you least expect it.
As you know, the banks are there to make money out of us at every opportunity so it's not in their interests to tell you you're overdrawn straight away.
Credit or Debit Card?
TSB Visa/Electron debit card. Several months ago, I was buying bit and bobs on the internet, relying on the fact that a DEBIT card would say 'insufficient funds' when purchasing objects online.
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Credit or Debit Card?
