In august Ebay took two unauthorised payments from my HSBC account, The refused to tell me what they were for. The wonderful British police refused to anything so HSBC refunded all the funds, Then they took it back and then refunded it and they are still doing it today mid November. They have written to say the money is mine but the same day they messaged me to say it was still coming out AGAIN. The Ombudsman is worse than useless and does nothing. I would love a resolution preferably in my lifetime and in my favour.

Not sure if this is the right place to post but my post is about how UNFAIR and rubbish the Debit card Chargeback scheme is. Wanted to let you know that I am in dispute with Lloyds bank as I asked them to put their visa/chargeback scheme in place earlier this year. My current account was defrauded by a company called MIYU Ltd, trading as Local Events Calendar who scammed me for nearly £500. They cold-called me asking if I wanted a 21 free day trial of an online ad for my company on their site. I agreed but they failed to display the advert and still took the funds out of my account. This fraudulent company are now in liquidation. Consumer Direct said that I was due a full refund as the Company had breached Trading Standards and Cosumer Rights etc. The day they scammed me I rang Lloyds and told them what happened. Lloyds said they would put the Chargeback scheme in place and hopefully refund my account. However the fraudulent company put in a counter claim and for whatever reason Lloyds took their word over mine and said they would not refund me for the [problem]. I have been a Lloyds customer for 30+ years with a good credit history. I contacted customer services complaints at Lloyds with evidence and a long explanation of how I'd been scammed, and was sent a 4 line reply saying, sorry we can't help you and a leaflet for the ombudsman. I rang to complain and was told the same thing. I am seeing a Lloyds Bank Manager in person next week to see if I can get any sense out of them before I have to go to the ombudsman. I have learnt from this affair that Lloyds Bank don't give a toss how long you have had your account. I believe they are told behind closed doors to palm people off to the Ombudsman. They made 1.6 billion profit in the first half of 2010. I am disgusted by them. When this is over I shall leave, result or no result. Thanks for reading

Hello, I bought a "custom made" item of clothing online in July and received it in September.. I specifically asked the retailer if they would be able to match my specs (after sending them several emails and pictures of what I wanted to be done) and they said they could. On receiving the item, it was 3 sizes too big and completely different from what I asked of them, when it was meant to be custom made and made to measure. I tried to do a claim through PayPal but they do not cover personalised items and was advised by a PayPal agent to contact my bank, which I then did. I received the full amount back from the bank, as chargeback. However, I am now being contacted by the retailer to ask for the product back. The clothes are for a wedding in December and I have already sent them off to a tailor to get them fixed. As they breached the contract in the first place, are they allowed to claim the product back legally or make a criminal case against me (which they threatened on the phone)? sorry for the lengthy message and I hope i posted this in the right place. any help or advice would be greatly appreciated... thanks in advance Han

Hi i was hoping someone could help? Yesterday I went to check my balance and could see that there was money missing from my account. I went into hsbc and on their computer there was pending transactions of £194 from cash genie and 140 from ariste holdings a company I have never heard from. I did owe cash genie money but after contacting them I advised them i would be in touch to repay at a later date due to being off work and self employed. They accepted this. I rang hsbc from within the branch and was told nothing could be done until it shows as cleared. I cancelled my bank card as I was told to and told them to cancel all future payments to theses companies again was advised by a worker of HSBC. What i want to know is ive never gave either of these companies my bank details so how have they got them? Can I do chargeback as this money was my rent so need it back asap and as I cancelled my bank card is chargeback even possible. Any help with this matter would be appreciated as im extremly worried if i dont get this money back that I will be in trouble with my rent and as i have no money coming in for a few weeks due to being off work how will I be able to cope?

Hi there I've recently had a charge to my bank account from a MYLOANS (with a long number attached) for £69.99. Upon further investigation I find out through the internet that it's a 'broker fee', I did not and would not ever accept charges like that to my bank account. So I phoned Halifax today regarding the issue and they say they can't do chargeback on Broker Fees which to me sounds ridiculous because I didn't request a service or receive one and I was still charged so this is fraudulent! My question really is where do I go from here? I've seen comments on similar forums saying I should be demanding chargeback and not requesting it, seen as how my debit card is a VISA there's no problem there I assume. Thanks in advance!

Can someone please help me? I purchased some large items online with a merchant based in Yorkshire, I paid using my Visa card to the sum of £206.75. The items were of poor quality and it was agreed with the merchant to return them for a refund, in the meantime I contacted Visa to let them know. As they did not offer a return service, this cost me an additional £55 to find a courier that could deliver these items, by this time Barclaycard had suspended the payment (this was in late April 2013). After a load of backwards and forwards with Barclaycard, they have now said that they cannot uphold my claim as the items according to the merchant were delivered in a used and unsalable state. This is not the case and although I have argued this point until I am blue in the face, Barclaycard keep saying that my description of the facts contradicts the merchants - Is this not protecting the merchant in this case? Barclays eventually asked me to try and resolve this myself directly with the merchant so on Friday 23rd August I did just that, their customer care team informed me that the items were signed for as damaged and may have been in a good condition when dispatched but were not on delivery!? No one has thought of mentioning this until last week, I now find that I cannot even claim from the courier service as they have a 3 day cut off for any losses or damage claims Surely, as the information I have been given by Barclaycard for the last few months was incorrect or misinterpreted they should now stand the cost of the refund and I should not find myself out of pocket? The cream on the cake was that the merchant also refuses to even return my goods but I am more than welcome to come and collect them - Again they know this is impossible without a specialist courier service at even more cost. I stand to lose my initial payment of £206.75, a return delivery cost of £55.00 and I have nothing to show for the money I have forked out........Is this fair?

Hi Everyone! I hope someone can help. I approached a company in Essex to purchase a car - they are similar to ACF in that they help people with not so perfect credit, and the car and the finance comes from them. According to them I was approved, and I chose a car online (I have never been on their premises). I spoke to the sales person, who said that they require a £200 holding deposit to remove the car from sale and to show that you are serious about purchasing the vehicle. I agreed with him over the phone a monthly repayment, but was not given details of the car price or anything else. I paid the deposit and then he sent a receipt, which stated the following:- "By paying an initial deposit you are committing to the purchase of the above vehicle. xxxx will immediately commence preparation work on your vehicle for delivery and remove it from sale. The first £200 of your holding deposit is non-transferable and non-refundable unless your application for finance is declined or the vehicle is not as described. xxxxx also reserve the right to retain the first £200 of your holding deposit if the finance application is declined due to material inaccuracies in personal information you have provided. Should you not pay for the goods, either by way of a cash payment or a finance facility, by the agreed pick up date, or you miss two agreed collection dates, then we will assume that you do not want the vehicle and that you have repudiated your contract with us. In this case, we will be entitled to keep the holding deposit you have paid " However none of this was explained to me at the time of paying the deposit. I then received the pre-contract information, but my application for finance hadn't been approved yet. They were still asking for additional documents. This was the first time I had seen details of the price of the car which was £10k, at least £2k over the going rate for this type of vehicle, in addition to this, the monthly payment was much higher than what I had agreed with the salesperson, and the total repayment to the company was stated as £23k!! When I saw this I immediately emailed them and said I no longer wished to go ahead with the application, and could they return my deposit. I am sensible enough to know that having had credit problems in the past, the last thing I wished to do was pay over 200% what I borrowed on a car that would be worth about half its value currently at the end of the agreement! They ignored my first email, and instead sent another pre-contract information form reducing the monthly repayments to just £20 more than had been previously agreed. I then emailed again refering them to my last email and saying that I didnt' wsh to go ahead and to cancel my application. I then got a phone call 2 days after from another salesman saying that the one I had been dealing with didn't work there anymore and that he apologised for the 'mistake' on the pre-contract information. I then told him I wasn't going ahead because the agreement was too expensive, and I hadn't been made aware of hte APR or anything before hand. He, clearly annoyed asked whether I wanted him to cancel the agreement - I said we didn't have an agreement, I hadn't signed anything, as far as I was aware we were still going through the application process, in fact they were still waiting for documents from me. He then said that I wouldn't get back my deposit, and I told him that the terms of the deposit were not explained to me before paying the money, and that had I known the terms I wouldn't have paid it. He said that they had spent money preparing the car for me so that was why I couldn't get the money back. I asked whether that meant that if someone else wanted to buy the car tomorrow that they wouldn't charge them £200 as the car was already prepared? He put the phone down. Do I have any rights to my deposit, is there any argument I can give? Can I claim the money back under the visa chargeback scheme? Please help! Thanks!

Hello. I need abit of advice. I have just found out that I have had someone use my card without my permission (fraudulently- don't know who the person is). They have used my Visa Debit card to buy into an insurance scheme for a piece of equipment. Told by Lloyds TSB to go to the company to sort it out. Went to them and still haggling with the company. Apparently someone who lives nowhere near me with a completely different name has used my card since 0ct 2011! Its only a small amount every three months that has gone out so I did not notice. Now went back to Lloyds TSB and told them I wanted my money back. They created a chargeback for me and said the money should be in my account in 24 hours (brilliant). Problems is apparently that they only will refund the past 13 months worth of money. Is that right?? I cannot find any info online on their website about it so far. Maybe I should let it go and count myself lucky I got any money back? Thanks

I purchased a product from a small company's website (they may be a sole trader rather than a ltd co), paid with a business debit card, but the goods never turned up. I've emailed several times, and always get a reply admitting that they still haven't sent it yet, but I will receive it in a couple of days time. Last contact was over a week ago, and I stated that I require the goods to be delivered by the next day, or to cancel my order and issue a full refund instead. Was again told I'd have it in a couple of days, but still nothing arrived. I spoke to my bank to request a chargeback, but they told me that they can't do it, and I need start a dispute through Paypal (the card processor, it wasn't done through my Paypal account). I have just spoken to Paypal who say they will look into it, but is it right that my bank cannot perform a chargeback on a debit card transaction like this? I won't name the business, or my bank for now, unless that would help?

Hello, I requested that my bank blocked/reversed a payment I made to Minicredit with reference to a payday loan, I requested this because I was unable to pay the loan and I wanted the debt incorporated into my DMP with Stepchange. Barclay's at the time refused, claiming that I never requested this before payment date and the payment had already gone through, this was a lie because I did in writing. A couple of months down the line Barclay's have now out of the blue reversed the payment, Minicredit are obviously not happy and have sent me a letter accusing me of fraud and threatening legal action! I have just e-mailed them explaining why Barclay's have done what they have done. I have told them that I will now continue with adding the debt to my DMP as originally planned. Stepchange reduced my payments to other creditors when Barclay's refused to reverse the payment so that I could afford my monthly expenses, this could be addressed if Barclay's were to ever reverse the payment. Has anybody had experience with Minicredit accusing people of so called fraud? And has anybody had any luck with actually getting a Minicredit debt added to a DMP? As always sound advice is appreciated! Cheers

can anyone tell me where i stand with this. i bought a fridge freezer from homebase on the 14th of jan and returned it the next day as it wasnt big enough, i was told of three dates for a refund but it never turned up i spoke to the bank (hsbc) they suggested a chargeback as it was a visa debit i could do that, so we did and was told we needed to fill out some forms with proof we had sent it back and was told we may need to pay it back at a later date as they put it into our account straight away but we would get plenty of notice of this. this was on the 1st of feb. we got the forms filled it out and sent it with a copy of the paperwork we had for sending it back. we thought no more of it then on the 18th homebase refunded the money into our account, now we did make a mistake and use the money they refunded without realising that was what is was. Then yesterday we received a letter saying they would be taking the amount back but no date on the form we rang them to find out they were taking it tomorrow. now the letter was dated the 22 of feb and we only know it will be taken tomorrow as we rang up. is this right surely that is not giving us prior knowledge of it going out. where do we stand with this, we will have no money in the bank tomorrow when tax credits go in and we are both unemployed and we have three children one is only one year old. thanks for looking

asking for a friend. she opened a chargeback for goods not received on the 8th january, rbs are giving her the run around (in my opinion) theyve sent out 2 or 3 sets of forms for her to fill in and she was told today her case wont be reviewed til the 18th feb. she still doesn't have her money. now i thought (and this is whats happened when ive previously had to do a chargeback) you get your money back then they investigate? feel sorry for her cause its over a £100 she's loosing out on

Hi folks can you help with this please, my wife bought me a DVD at christmas from HMV with her credit card, it turned out she had bought the wrong DVD so took it back to the shop and had the credit put onto a giftcard. As you know they have went bust and are not accepting giftcards, can she still try for the chargeback as it was originally paid for by credit card?? thank you.

Hi there I would be grateful for advice dealing with these parasites minicredit. I took out a £100 loan which I knew I would be able to repay on my payday which i told them was 28th September. Technically we should get paid on the last working day of the month but often it hits our accounts the day before. I have 2 current accounts one for credits/spending and one for household bills. I am trying to pay off my overdraft on the one account so that I can close it as Lloyds tsb have started charging for the overdraft which used to be free, in addition to the the £25 a month account fee. I arranged to have my salary credited to the second account in preparation for this and had begun the process of changing over direct debits etc but as i still have some payments (including the mini credit loan) coming out of the account I plan to close, I transferred some funds into the account for this purpose. Mini credit charge £2 for changing your debit card details and you have to have funds in your account to change the details and i didn't so i couldnt give them the card details for the preferred account prior to the repayment date. I thought as I had told minicredit that my payday was 28th that the funds would be debited on 28th. I transferred funds on 27th for this purpose.On 2nd November i noticed an email from minicredit stating I had defaulted, I was really confused. I logged into my account with them and my loan was showing as overdue. I looked at my bank accounts and it became clear that minicredit had tried to debit the funds on Sunday 30th September - who gets paid on a Sunday ?? its not a working or banking day. As on Sunday my regular direct debits were in the system and earmarked to be debited the next day this did not leave enough funds for mini credit. Whilst I had the funds available in my other account for my direct debits(lloyds give you up until 3.30pm that day to pay in any necessary funds to cover recent debits) as mini credit had tied to take a card payment this was declined by my bank. I immediately attempted to make a card payment online for the full loan amount (which included a £25 charge. The payment would not go through but there was no reason why that I knew of. A while later I got an automated call from Lloyds TSB fraudline to my switchboard at work. I couldn't complete the request as we have an analogue system so I couldn't press the appropriate buttons.I tried calling back when I got home(as I had had a missed call to my landline) but you just get a message saying they Lloyds Fraud department have called and will call again. I emailed mini credit through their stupid web form query system and they told me that another £55 charge had been added. I asked them why they had not taken the funds on 28th when they were available and they said that I had told them my payday was 30th. They also said that more charges had been added for 'failed debit card attempts They said that I should take this up with my bank as to why the online payment wasnt allowed and that they dont refuse any payments. I should also add that they charge £4.50 for making a payment or a partial payment ! on top of everything else. I was not happy about paying these charges and whilst i had the actual amount payable I didnt have another £55 for the added charges so even if I had paid they would still have kept adding charges on top of charges. I have been sending them messages through their web based form and their replies have been unhelpful,rude and at times intimidating. They refuse to help in any way shape or form. They did say they would consider a reasonable request for settlement if paid in full immediately by debit card over the phone. They said if I pay on line it will just come off the balance. They have now started helping themselves from my account whenever they feel like it taking small payments of £15 and £25 up to 3 times a day when funds are available. They have taken my child tax credits. So far they have had £155 from me. The loan was for £100 and £137.50 was payable under the agreement on 28th Sept or 30th as they claim. The interest to date they say is £58 but there are default fees of £80 and a 'broken agreement fee of £100 !plus failed payment charges of £5 up to 3 times a day. My account shows a debt of £340 and has been passed to debt collection but they are still debiting from my bank and have taken £155 already. I offered to pay them what I owe plus interest several times but told them I will not pay these ridiculous charges and I will not speak to them on the phone or give my debit card details to anyone over the phone. Up to now my bank havent allowed any payments if there have been no funds in my account but yesterday they allowed minicredit to take £25 making me overdrawn. I rang lloyds and explained the situation and they refused to help. I asked for a chargeback but they refused. The guy said that debit card payments are promised payments and they dont get involved with payday companies. I have already downloaded a form for the fos and the guy said to get this sent off as they would sort it out and look at the circumstances fairly but Lloyds wouldnt get involved. In the meantime they said they would continue to make any payments to mini credit and charge me if I go overdrawn because they have no choice as they are promised payments. I said to him if these debit card payments are promised payments why did they not let the original request for the full amount go through on 30th Sept. I would then have been able to move money , job done. I asked to speak to a manager. The manager said that large debit card payments can be refused but not smaller ones so the agreed repayment of £137.50 wouldnt have been allowed. He told me there is nothing they can do to help me and I should phone minicredit . I explained that I had already tried this but he wouldn't budge. I explained that I wanted to close my account and he said if I could go to a branch and pay in enough to cover my agreed overdraft and the unauthorised amount by 3pm they could close my account provided only if mini credit hadn't earmarked any funds !He said it will be in the minicredit terms and conditions that they can take these amounts. I agree this may be the case but I thought that you can remove authorisation for recurring payments. He said payday loans are separate issue. I have since done some reading up on here regarding chargebacks and it appears Lloyds are in the wrong and they should action my request and do a chargeback and not authorise any further payments. Can I get this chargeback and can I stop the payments. I dont have the funds to close the account at the moment and am incurring daily overdraft fees on top of everything else. Mini credit have sent a 'doorstep visit' letter. It gives no postal address for mini credit. I have emailed them telling them I do not consent to a doorstep visit. I have also told them I will not speak on the phone only in writing or email. I have also emailed them telling them I have removed my authorisation for them to take card payments.I have taken people on before and am quite knowledgeable about my rights, alot of it learned from this site. I will not be intimidated by them but this lot are the worst I have ever dealt with and after reading others experiences I am worried that my debt will just keep increasing , I now owe £500 for a £100 loan of which you only actually get £93.50. Mini credits complaints dept said they will accept as settlement the amount borrowed £100, interest to date £58, default charges £80 but they will waive some of the failed debit card fees (which stand at £159) and the £100 broken agreement fee.This means they still want £238 plus a percentage of the £159 ! but that is still increasing. I responded saying as they have already had £155 I will pay them £3 which is the remainder of the interest at that date. I await their reply which I am sure will not be a welcome one. 2 things here , how do I tackle mini credit ? If it goes to OPS which I understand is their in house debt collection, can they enforce all these charges on top of what I have paid them and do my bank have to comply with my request not to pay them any more money and to do a chargeback on yesterdays payment ? I am going to send a complaint off to the FOS but I am worried about them continuing to take money from me in the meantime. Please help ,what should I say to my bank and who should I speak to ?

Hi, any help/advice will be greatly appreciated. Four weeks ago Ariste Holdings aka Cash Genie debited four transactions totalling £503 from my account. I won't go over all the details again but they were completely unauthorised and unexpected. So I got some much needed advice from CAG and got my money refunded by my bank the following day, via chargeback. Several days later I got a letter explaining that whilst the bank had refunded my money they were now to investigate the charges and respond within 21 days saying it was possible the charges will be re-applied to my account. So needless to say that on the 21st day from that letter (yesterday), the bank had done just that and debited £503 from my account once again! On calling them and speaking to the fraud investigator who is apparently in charge of my case I was told that they had spoken to cash genie and that simply because they had my name, address and phone number, the charges were legitimate and so authorised. This by the way, is EXACTLY what he said! He told me there was absolutely no way of getting my money back and to take it up with cash genie. I rang cash genie knowing full well they were not going to be of any help whatsoever but did so just to satisfy the bank's request. They said they were allowed to take money whenever they wanted simply because I owed them it. £180 was the total amount owed if that makes any difference. I'm now left in a worse situation than I was originally and would like to know where to go from here. Ultimately, to get my money back for good! I'm prepared to write letters etc. and know this isn't going to be a quick and easy process but I really don't know where to start and even where I stand. Just a link to some template letters would be helpful to get me going. I have searched the internet but found absolutely nothing relating to chargebacks being re-applied to a customer. This is a very brief summary of the whole saga so if any more details are needed or would help then please ask! Thanks,

Dear All, I became the victim of a fast-growing fraud last weekend, a con which I believe needs highlighting to the wider public, and in big style too. I was forced to sell my main computer, an iMac originally bought new 4 years ago. For ease of use (and because of the good experiences I'd made with them until now) I chose to put the computer up for sale on eBay, both as an auction and a 'Buy It Now' option. As you know all Apple products generally have a high resale value; I was hoping to get at least £400-500 for it, so I set the Buy It Now price at £525. Less than 2 days into the auction, the item was snapped up by a buyer with an (admittedly) very low number of transactions, but 100% positive feedback -- still the only thing to go by when checking for a buyer's/seller's integrity on eBay. After his initial contact asking for my phone number, I received a call on Friday night as to whether I would agree to the Mac being collected. I was okay with this, however, telling him in which case only cash would be acceptable -- for two reasons: 1) PayPal transactions can be reversed, a procedure they call 'Chargeback'; and 2) PayPal only provides for seller protection if items are shipped by tracked courier. The next morning, and contrary to our agreement, I received a payment for the full amount via PayPal. Less than five minutes later, a lackey (presumably the buyer's mate) rings the doorbell and asks if the Mac is ready for collection. In my naivety (and in the spur of the moment) I agreed to the hand-over of goods, in good faith that this was a bona-fide transaction. What else is one to do within 5 minutes? The lackey makes off with my Mac -- no receipt, no signature, no CCTV, no witnesses, and I could still kick myself for not following him to his car to take the registration -- and less than 12 hours later I received an email by PayPal informing me that the transaction had been reversed due to 'unauthorised use' of the buyer's PayPal account (which, incidentally, was not in the name of the buyer, as I found out later through checking electoral roll records). As one can imagine, the buyer now does not respond to any of my messages (the phone number used is disconnected; presumably a pay-as-you-go SIM card bought solely for this purpose). Needless to say, I feel absolutely shattered and like a complete idiot. On following this up with the fraud department at PayPal, I was told in no uncertain terms that I can kiss my iMac bye-bye and that "this wouldn't have happened if I had abided by their safety protection" (i.e. shipped the computer). I have now reported this crime (as I believe this is exactly what it is) to the police, although they will in all probability not follow this up since it is a civil law matter, and the chances of a successful prosecution of the fraudster are pretty slim. What's more, the name and address of the PayPal account the buyer used (or abused) do not match with electoral roll records, which makes me believe that the whole 'unauthorised use' claim is poppycock anyway. Quite apart from that: I may be old-fashioned, but it is the PayPal account holder's responsibility to prevent unauthorised access to their account: their email address is analogous to a credit card; their login password to a PIN. Now, my main gripe -- and the real issue here -- is not so much with the conman (nor his lackey, who may be completely oblivious to the fraud, nor the allegedly-'hacked-into' PayPal account holder), but with eBay themselves, who insist that PayPal be offered as a payment method even for collection items, at the same time PayPal flatly denying all responsibility to the seller (i.e. me) in case there is a dispute, and only siding with the buyer, fraudulent or not. This is in addition to the fact that they are one-and-the-same company. In other words I, as a seller, am not allowed to state 'cash only' on collection (I will get penalised for this), but am not protected by PayPal (which is being touted as a 'safe' payment method in the same breath). I don't believe that PayPal should be allowed to weasel out of their responsibility, because with their opaque terms, conditions and requirements they are effectively facilitating criminal actions such as this. The issue was already highlighted by the Guardian consumer protection section (guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jan/27/is-paypal-safe-protection) a couple of months ago, but I feel it needs to be brought out again so that eBay/PayPal will be pressured into a change of their T's&C's, and into acknowledging at least partial responsibility. I believe there have been a great deal of people recently who were stung really badly in the same manner, and a great many call-to-action groups sprouting against PayPal's more questionable techniques online. Lastly, ever since PayPal has located their headquarters away from the UK (they are now based in Luxembourg) I wonder whether they are still bound by FSA rules (they used to be); if not, their status of a de-facto 'bank' should be brought into question, and maybe relegated to a simple money-wiring network, in which case they are no more secure than Western Union, Moneygram et. al., the very companies that they accuse of being 'dangerous'. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is it worth pursuing the matter through the courts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and please forward to as many people as you know, because this type of fraud needs to be stopped. Thanks, Jay

sorry if this is is the wrong section but i need help recently i bought a laptop from someone on a forum and like an idiot i decided to buy it i bought it using paypal which had my yorkshire bank card attached to it today i realised i got done v as the idiot actually admitted to it but then he suddenly said i cant charge back or something because he has closed his account now am quite upset i was wondering how do i actually do a chargeback with yorkshire bank or if i can even do one? as i paid him $100 which is around £65 but its still alot of money for me am quite unhappy any help would be appreicated also this has never happend to me before i didnt even know waht a charge back was before this and only still have limtied knowledge of it