Outstanding Debit card Authorisation

marco79

marco79

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On Friday (25/02/2011) I made a payment on my Game account at Game Somerset Mall. The teller swiped my debit card and the transaction was declined and I paid the amount in cash. FNB was offline and no transactions could go through if paying with an FNB debit/credit card.

A few minutes later I checked my phone and the in-contact sms said that the amount at Game was reserved for payment. I went back to Game to query this and a supervisor assured me that if the transaction was decline then Game did not receive the funds. If I could bring her a bank statement showing the transaction I would get a refund.

On my bank statement no transaction shows but when i do a detailed balance check it shows the amount as "Outstanding Debit card Authorisation". Should i be worried about loosing this money or will this amount be reversed into my account?
 
Same thing happened to me at petrol station a few months ago, also with FNB.
The transaction was eventually reversed, but after a very long time, about a month.
Luckily with me, the amount was only R200, so didn't mind much.
 
Last edited:
kokzn said:
Same thing happened to me at petrol station a few months ago, also with FNB.
The transaction was eventually reserved, but after a very long time, about a month.
Luckily with me, the amount was only R200, so didn't mind much.
Click to expand...

I take it you mean reversed ?
 
Something similar happened with me at Chaos Computers. Once again as with kokzn the amount was small. Only R50.00. The system processed the refund amount due to their mistake of selling me items at an incorrect price. After the transaction was confirmed and processed did they notify me the product was actaully another R50. So I decided to take the refund and only buy the other item. To this day that refund has not made it into my account. Chaos say it left their account.
 
How long has it been MrG?
I think mine took close to a month or more.
 
It's been 2 years :P - I should actually run through my statements to verify 100% it wasn't refunded, but I did check thoroughly during those periods.

Edit: Wait there isn't that much history :( oh well...
 
MrG said:
It's been 2 years :P - I should actually run through my statements to verify 100% it wasn't refunded, but I did check thoroughly during those periods.

Edit: Wait there isn't that much history :( oh well...
Click to expand...
lol, i think you only get up to 3 months back of your history on IB.
If you want the bank to issue you with 2yo statements, they are easily going to charge you way more that R50. Let it slide
 
broken1 said:
You can phone the bank, ask them to check if it's still in "authorised only" state and they can manually request for it to be reversed sooner.
Click to expand...
I will wait it out until Friday, thats the only time I can get to a bank.
 
If you think that's bad - hubby went to London for a business trip. The company paid for his flight and his hotel.
However, he wanted to at least get a day or two to actually see London while he was there so he asked them to please move his return flight out by 2 days.
No problem, they said, and moved the flight.
The day before he leaves for London he notices on the trip details document that they booked him into the hotel for 3 nights instead of just 1. Sweet, we think - now we can stop struggling to find a decent place for him to stay, so lets ask for more info about the hotel.
Turns out we have to pay for the other 2 nights ourselves. He gets to the hotel, and it's a larny hydro spa hotel, and on top of that he's staying in an Executive Suite. So he checks in and they take his credit card details because he has to pay for his own breakfast and internet access. He contacts me to tell me what the hotel is like and what kind of room he is in so I can do the math - and I tell him no ways. So he phones reception and tells them that he's not staying the other 2 nights with them, just the first night.

Next thing we know, they've "reserved" out nearly R6000 on our credit card for those other 2 nights. They claim they haven't taken the money, and they have reversed the reservation from their end, and now it's up to the bank to release the funds again.
I'm trying to book him a new hotel from SA, book and pay for his theatre tickets, and book and pay for a band he was going to see. But there's practically no more money left on the credit card because the hotel/bank/someone is holding it! On his side, he needs to buy his lunch, supper, tube ticket etc. On my side, I need to go grocery shopping because I have no food in the house, but at the till the card gets declined and my brother-in-law has to save the day.

Fortunately we have another bank account with a little bit of money in it. We transferred it over and he managed to survive his trip. We got the new hotel and the tickets and the food. When he got back from London, the money was released again, but by then it was all over and we didn't need it anymore.

Say it with me: GRRRRRRRRRRR!
 
I phoned the Relationship Manager at my bank yesterday. She will follow up with the debit card guys to find out what's happening.
 
broken1 said:
You can phone the bank, ask them to check if it's still in "authorised only" state and they can manually request for it to be reversed sooner.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. After speaking to FNB's relationship manager last week, the funds was reversed into my account on Saturday.
 
cant say that this has happened to me yet. but i would also throw my toys out the cot until i got my money back.
 
marco79 said:
Thanks for the advice. After speaking to FNB's relationship manager last week, the funds was reversed into my account on Saturday.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear.

Banks are quite happy to reverse "authorised" only transactions.

It gets a bit more difficult if the shop has "banked" the money, i.e. it's on your statement and in their account.
 
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