Shops confiscating debit cards when declined - who remembers this?

[Confusedandanxiety]

Does anyone remember in the 90s/early 2000s shops wouldn't give your debit card back when it was declined. I think they might have got a reward of £50 or something if they did this.
Is it still a thing?
I understand it happened for fraud reasons, but I vaguely recall me and some other students maxing out our overdrafts and when trying to buy fags and booze the shop assistant saying they had been instructed by the bank to retain the card.

@FindingMeno I think they have to leave their driving licence or something now, I’m sure that’s what my husband had to do when he realised he’d left his card at home

No, just name and address, if that. They've all got cameras on the pumps, so if you don't return and pay up they will simply hand your licence plate over to the police.

Once. It has happened to me just once. I was so embarrassed. Never again! I check I've got my wallet before I get out of the car now.

Really reminds me of my student days when it took a few days for payments to process so technically you could spend over your limit if you did it quick enough and you knew money was coming in on a few days. A few times that was the only way I got through to the next loan instalment!

Yes I worked in retail at the time and we had a few of these.

It was due to fraud or cloned cards though - not just being declined because there was not enough funds in the bank.

We used to get lots of cloned/fake cards in the shop and you could spot them a mile off. Would call up with a "code 10" and usually the customer would run off whilst you were on the phone.

Good little earner some months 😂

The "Floor Limit" on cc was much lower, less than £100 iirc, above which a phone sanction was required and cheque cards (not debit cards) only guaranteed up to £50. It was always discretionary whether to accept that the signature matched. There was also a list of stolen card numbers behind the till.

I remember getting a new '3 in 1' card, that guaranteed cheques to £100, I could take money out of a cash point, and I could pay with the card.

Previously I'd had a cheque guarantee card and a card to use in the ATM.