Debit cards - this should be common knowledge

[FlightAttendant]

I've just been speaking to the bank about this, and thought I would pass on what I was told so that as many people as possible see it.

Just before Christmas, I used my debit card in a local shop to pay for some food...I have done this on many occasions without any problems.

Looked at my bank statement on Sunday, to see that the same amount had been taken from my account not once, but 7 times.

I rang the bank...Oh yes we have a department for this, they will ring you within 48 hours.

Meanwhile I contacted the shop and the chap was very apologetic, said he had a long list of people to refund and would be doing so this week. Fair enough, though still not entirely sure how it happened.

Anyway, I rang the bank today for an update as nobody had bothered to call me back as promised. I was told that there is no such department, and that because debit card payments are guaranteed, they have zero control over them and once a shop has taken one payment, they can go on to request the money several times and the bank will do nothing to prevent this despite it being obviously wrong.

I'm just pretty shocked that if someone decided to take random amounts from my card they would probably get away with it.

That's the last time I am ever using a debit card either online or in a shop, again...

I just thought others might not be aware of this and might assume the bank would at least try to help...I assumed this, but no cigar.

Also it appears the shop has tried to refund the money (just over £100) but it can take up to 10 days to appear in people's accounts.

I'm fortunately only going to incur minor charges relating to this (thanks, Natwest ) but some might not be so lucky.

Wow, thats leaving us wide open isn't it? to mistakes and robbers.

Is it the same with every bank?

I only have a debit card.

We've had a problem with 3 garages doing this in our area.
A friend of ours paid £10 twice, whenever she put £10 petrol in - it went on for several months before she noticed.
One of the garages is almost brand new - a big flashy 'On The Run' with foodstore etc.

Someone else on MN raised this a while ago. It really makes you understand why a lot of the older generation are reluctant to use debit cards.

I have had some odd things appear on my statement too, a while ago a payment was taken from my account relating to goods purchased at my local Laura Ashley store. Laura Ashley had no record of the transaction, the bank said it was unlikely to be fraud as it was a one off and they refunded the payment. They said that as I had purchased goods from this store before Laura Ashley had most likely made a mistake and used my details for someone elses transaction, they said it is quite common for this to happen!

Yes, my mother has never trusted cards but then she doesn't trust anything remotely virtual so I took it with a pinch of salt.
Shame the banks don't make these things clear in the literature they send out with the cards.

The bank person said in two years of working there, she's only seen this happen once apart from this time.

I'm not sure about that.
Will be checking statement carefully from now on, and using credit card instead I think.
Most places seem to take them, I know Lidl and Aldi don't but can live without those

I never ever use my debit card for on-line transactions after being the victim of cloning/hacking. My Amazon account was hacked into and they used my card details to buy things from Walmart & Dunkin Donuts (they sell coffee on-line apparently!)

My bank did notice transactions going on in America at 2/3 in the morning and stopped my card but they didn't actually stop the payments going through because my debit card details had been used.

We did get the money back, but charges appeared on our statement and we had to get them taken off and we also had to sit looking like we were overdrawn for about a fortnight, which was a nightmare as we kept having to calculate how much money we had.

Any places which stores your card details like Amazon etc, I have gone into and removed the card details.

My parents have debit cards but never use them. My dad just takes cash out the bank over the counter when he needs it.

I don't know who you bank with but my bank (Barclays) place a stop on the card immediately they see anything suspicious going through. In one case it was small transaction in the US which looked fraudulent. They don't tell you though - you have to find out for yourself when you try to pay for something and contact them to have stop lifted...

Barclays are always stopping my card as they think something looks suspicious.

Was this like the 'ghost payments' or actual payments? I was charged twice in Aldi in december but the card was declinced, so DH went home and got cash and paid it in cash but I noticed a few days later that they actually took 2 payments on the card too. I did get a refund when I went to the shop with my bank print out and reciepts.

We had thisproblem too £80 came out of dp's account in £10s and £20s on different days paying to 02 mobiles. Apparently they do this first putting credit on their phone in small amounts to see if you notice before they take a large amount. Dp reckons it was either a shell garage in Oldham or something to do with paying for his phone credit over the phone. The bank (HSBC) refunded the money.

Sparkly it was real payments...I'm so thankful that the shop owner is a decent sort and they say they have refunded everyone on Monday, but the money is still in 'cyberspace' and not appeared in the accounts thus far.
I suppose if it were less amicable the police would be the next step...good advice about taking details off online places, if only I could remember where mine were stored!

Ledodgy that's good of HSBC...also impressed if Barclays are given to stopping payments, though it might be awkward.

I thought Natwest was part of HSBC, can't think why nobody ahs offered me a refund.

Does anyone know - are credit cards really safer? I am a bit new to them.

The reason I don't just take cash out is that I never know how much I will need, and there are very few accessible-by-car cashpoints round here.

Natwest is not part of hsbc.

This is why you should never use your card for a regular payment (like a dd type thing) as the bank will ahve no control over stopping it.

Call them back and demand to speak to the customer concerns team regarding this you might get someone who will refund the charges for you.

Shoot. So what's the alternative then - use credit cards? I'm going to monitor my account a lot more closely.

This is why a lot of those "free trail" type place always ask for debit card and not direct debit, because you can cancel a direct debit payment by ringing your bank, BUT if you want to cancel a card payment then you need to ring the company directly. (then they try and persuade you to stay with them

natwest will tell all different type of stories to et get out of trying help/sort problems. I had no end of trouble with them and their 'systems' and 'proceedures'

Yes, never use your debit card online, of for things like magazine subscriptions.

I do find this insane though. It sounds like a problem with the PDQ machine.

On the other hand, when I was working in an electrical retailer, some of the staff got sacked for copying customers cards, duplicating a sale, and then taking the cash out of the till! Some of them also sold on card info. (they've gone bust, thankfully!!)

So never let your card out of your sight in a shop.

You should be able to get the charges back though. In some cases the bank will do it as good customer service and if not the company should cover then as it is there fault.

I used to work in a bank and this is much more common than you think but usually its part of an automated process on behalf of the company and they have no problems in paying the funds back. I believe it can happen on credit cards as well.

Most banks also have some kind of disputes team who can check different things to confirm that it is an error etc, usually they are pretty easy to identify and resolve if a genuine error.

It will take a while to rectify as the company will have to do it and the bank will not be able to action anything and will not put money in your account for someone elses error. Similar things can also happen with bacs, direct debits and standing orders. Anything that uses an automated process can duplicate things, or take payments late when you've forgotten about them. This is why you need to check your bank statement all the time