Mistry Money leaves my account

[chilli_bird]

Hi Hope i can have some help on this.

Yesterday my account balance on my Current account was £1.00. Today i got paid. I called telephone banking at 6am and i was paid xxx.xx,

I called again at 7am and around 3 pounds was debited my account. I have not made any card transactions on my account nor have i paid for any services with my bank or other. Basically what i am saying is that i should have in my account what i was paid plus £1. So when i got through to an advisor and asked what that debit was for i was told that the bank sometimes takes out money from accounts to check the account is active. I was not aware of this and am shocked. This is stealing as far as i am concered. The advisor told me to check back in 3-6 days as this would be depostited back into my account. Surely banks can not just take a small amount of money from an account without permission? and its not like i had not spoken to my bank less then 12 hours before so by them using an acuse to say they want to check my account is active is rubbish to me.

 

please help me with advise.

[tendogs]

Hi CB

 

I would be more suprised if they deposited a small sum into your account to ensure that it's active.

 

Look, I don't know, but it feels wrong, for example what if they removed £3 the day before a direct debit or a cheque had to clear and you were under funded, would they charge you for returning the debit? I think so. In over 40 years with a current account this has never occured with one of my accounts.

 

Chase this up and get some form of response in writing.

Edited March 13, 2009 by tendogs
one word too many !!!

[chilli_bird]

They told me that they could not send me this in writing. I think i may call the bank again and record the call.

[saintly_1]

Or send a letter to them detailing what happened ask for the response in writing ;-)

[yourbank]

definitely get something in writing, if the bank are saying that they debit money to "Check" if its active. That to me sounds like utter BS. I have known fraudster to do a "check" to make sure the card is live but never the bank. Very intriguing.

[chilli_bird]

I just called my back and explained what happened this morning. Was told 2 transactions were made this morning at 6:31 and 6:35, the first was for £2 and the second for £1.

 

I am on hold to my bank now. been on hold for 25 minutes.

[SURFBOY]

I do hope you are recording this call!

Could be interesting.

[chilli_bird]

Hello Just got off the phone to Barclay's Bank and I was told that the money was taken out to verify my card. I have not heard of this before from a bank.

I have heard of Visa Verification but that is a 'Free Service'. I was told this will be paid back to me in 10 days.

 

I am not happy.

[chilli_bird]

The Call is Recorded

[BankFodder]

I hope that you will now record all of your phone calls with these people as a matter of routine.

You should now call them and ask them where it is it written that they may do this and what would happen if you had attempted to spend the money somewhere else and had gone overdrawn or else the payment was refused? Would they have applied charges to your account - and if the payee had appied charges, would the bank have have refunded those charges? If the payee had defaulted you for a missed payment would the bank have taken action to clear up that problem and have compensated you?

Get this recorded and then complain about the whole thing to the FOS.

Keep us informed.

[saintly_1]

This deffinatly dosen't sound right ........ I would try and get an explaination in writing from them

[chilli_bird]

I Think i will write my bank a letter and get an explanation from them. I am not in arrears with them and in fact they have been ok with my banking with them. Its jut the principle. If it gets out of hand i may need to open an account elsewhere.

[BankFodder]

Get a recorded explanation first.

The ask for it in writing.

[yourbank]

The explanation given sounds like a heap of BS. hmmm will check on this one with someone who works for Barclays on another forum and see what they think.

[tendogs]

Instinctively this can't be correct I smell something wrong. Follow the line of action Bank Fodder described, write to them so that they have to return your letter and let them know you have a recording of the conversation.

[yourbank]

I spoke to someone via PM on another forum. They have asked for a bit more info as well, which i thought was right. If the amount has debited your account, is there a narrative for the payment? Has it fully cleared through your account?

Is the money going to simply "drop off" or show as a refund? It does seem that the explanation given was not clear enough.

[chilli_bird]

I checked my account and printed a statement off but it does not show anything. When i checked my account today the £3.00 was back in, but the service advisor had no explanation of it.

[yourbank]

I checked my account and printed a statement off but it does not show anything. When i checked my account today the £3.00 was back in, but the service advisor had no explanation of it.

 

Have you paid anything at all over the previous few days for £3? I can explain it, but it is not as simple as it would appear without another transaction involved.

[chilli_bird]

Hi

No i have not.

I speak to telephone banking at least once a day if not more. I am very good with knowing where my money is, i have transferred money between my accounts and i did pay for my Tesco Shop on Friday AM, BUT that is not taken ou until 2 hours before my foods is to be delivered which was 9pm Friday.

Varify with Visa is used for this service but this is a FREE service and i have an email from visa to say its a free service.

[yourbank]

I haven't got an explanation for it. No bank will charge you or take money from the account and then refund it just to check if the account is live. My thoughts was that maybe a transaction had been duplicated and that only one had fully cleared through the account which would explain why there is nothing showing today. However, Barclays own explanation is very very odd. Definitely ask for a written response because I would certainly be interested to see what they say.

[chilli_bird]

i will do.

I guess to most ppl who do not check there account religiously (lol) like me may not noticed it. The fact that it has not show as an amount leaving my bank and it has not credited it seem odd to me as well. I would like to see what Barclays say.

[barns66]

Hi

I don't know the answer to your problem,but i know sometimes at the places on the internet that i shop when i register a new card with them they will take a small payment from it then return it shortly afterwards for verification,but they always tell you when they are going to do this.

 

barns66

[chilli_bird]

Maybe that's what happened but they did not tell me and i have used Tesco Online at least 20 times without this happening. maybe it is a new thing.

But shouldn't it come up with where the debit happened