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New Credit/Debit cards .

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  • 12-11-2010 9:37pm
    #1
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭


    Hi,
    This should be the right place to post but this has been buggin me lately.

    Amazon and yahoo have done this to me for the past year or so, anytime
    I make a purchase they charge me double and then about a week later I get back half.

    I contacted them and they said this is an "Authorization fee" WTF ??
    This didn't used to happen and seems unnessecary (for example play.com Auth. fee is €1 , not the price of the item) .

    If I go to Dunnes or Tesco with my card and buy something for €10, they won't charge me €20 and give me €10 back next week !! - This would be just unacceptable, yet with online firms this seems ok.


    What next, charge us €1000 and then refund us €990 the following week ?


    The money they keep for the week they make interest on (all adds up)
    and when currency conversion is involved you can lose some. :mad:



    When did this cr*p start ?


Comments

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    #2
    Davy
    Registered Users Posts: 19,340 CMod ✭✭✭✭Davy


    Who is your back/card provider?


  • Options
    #3
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    Davy wrote: »
    Who is your back/card provider?


    Spanish Bank Caixa Catalunya , card is a Visa Electron .


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    #4
    BuffyBot
    Registered Users Posts: 24,924 ✭✭✭✭BuffyBot


    Authorisations have been around a very long time now. Visa Electron cards are often set to be authorised for every single purchase. You've not been charged twice, and it's not a fee.

    When you make a purchase, the retailer performs an authorisation (or in this case, is forced to because of how the card is set up which checks that the card is valid, and that funds are available. The bank then puts a hold on that amount so that it can't be spent and waits for the transaction to be processed. The charge comes in, the authorisation drops off. And authorisations can happen with offline retailers too. Often, as said, it's nothing to do with them but the nature of the card.


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    #5
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users Posts: 7,652 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    BuffyBot wrote: »
    Authorisations have been around a very long time now. Visa Electron cards are often set to be authorised for every single purchase. You've not been charged twice, and it's not a fee.

    When you make a purchase, the retailer performs an authorisation (or in this case, is forced to because of how the card is set up which checks that the card is valid, and that funds are available. The bank then puts a hold on that amount so that it can't be spent and waits for the transaction to be processed. The charge comes in, the authorisation drops off. And authorisations can happen with offline retailers too. Often, as said, it's nothing to do with them but the nature of the card.

    A lot of debit cards are now showing authorizations as if they are transactions in their online banking, this can cause problem with failed, voided, reversed or uncompleted transactions. As far as the bank is concerned they authorized it, they only know it was voided or reversed when it never settles.

    The other main problem with this is they do not always match the auth with the settlement, and both appear online for a period.

    And some banks can leave the shadow on the account for 7 to 10 day.


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