Pre-authorisation mess with BoI debit card

enas

Hi,

Over the course of three consecutive days, I have been debited twice or more for a specific transaction. Those concern payments I've done in France, where I have just landed, to make things even harder.

So it started with a payment at IKEA here (a large one, I'm just settling in a new accommodation). Amount debited twice. I rang BoI, told me to see with retailer, all they could see is that I authorised two payments (!), at the exact same time, and IKEA has been paid twice. I actually believed this, went to IKEA again (miles away), they showed me their transactions history, that my card has paid them only once, that they can't make any refund consequently. Going back to Bank of Ireland (with expensive international calls with a French mobile), same story again, all you can do is fill a dispute form. I eventually called my own branch, and the lady was a little bit more helpful. Of course she still denied any wrongdoing from the bank, telling me for example it's normal to pay overdraft fees should this happen as a consequence of that; telling me that I would have to pay for a replacement card if I feel my card is faulty. Furthermore, since transaction fees have been introduced, I'm actually paying a fee for being wrongly charged a large amount of money! Will that fee ever get refunded?

But she agreed to ask for an investigation, and promised I would get a call back. This hasn't happened, but, miracle, I see the amount has been credited back (appears with a "CR adjustment" line). That's different to a pre-authorisation falling off after x working days. I see there an admission from BoI (otherwise they would have waited for a refund from IKEA I suppose), but no one called me to update me on this. But that's one issue settled.

But, this has happened two more times in as many days!!! One is for a transaction I made online (not pin verified), the other is even worse! I put petrol at an automated pump. As is common practice in France, and many other countries, you first preauthorise an arbitrary amount of money (€130 here). Then, you take as much petrol as you need, and the card is charged with the actual amount. Guess what? Both the actual sum *and* the pre-authorised sum have been charged. This is getting seriously annoying. I'm now unable to contact anyone, whether on 365 or my own branch, so I was wondering if I can get anyone call me back to clarify, and solve, the whole situation.

Many thanks.

Bank of Ireland: Sean

enas wrote: »

Hi,

Over the course of three consecutive days, I have been debited twice or more for a specific transaction. Those concern payments I've done in France, where I have just landed, to make things even harder.

So it started with a payment at IKEA here (a large one, I'm just settling in a new accommodation). Amount debited twice. I rang BoI, told me to see with retailer, all they could see is that I authorised two payments (!), at the exact same time, and IKEA has been paid twice. I actually believed this, went to IKEA again (miles away), they showed me their transactions history, that my card has paid them only once, that they can't make any refund consequently. Going back to Bank of Ireland (with expensive international calls with a French mobile), same story again, all you can do is fill a dispute form. I eventually called my own branch, and the lady was a little bit more helpful. Of course she still denied any wrongdoing from the bank, telling me for example it's normal to pay overdraft fees should this happen as a consequence of that; telling me that I would have to pay for a replacement card if I feel my card is faulty. Furthermore, since transaction fees have been introduced, I'm actually paying a fee for being wrongly charged a large amount of money! Will that fee ever get refunded?

But she agreed to ask for an investigation, and promised I would get a call back. This hasn't happened, but, miracle, I see the amount has been credited back (appears with a "CR adjustment" line). That's different to a pre-authorisation falling off after x working days. I see there an admission from BoI (otherwise they would have waited for a refund from IKEA I suppose), but no one called me to update me on this. But that's one issue settled.

But, this has happened two more times in as many days!!! One is for a transaction I made online (not pin verified), the other is even worse! I put petrol at an automated pump. As is common practice in France, and many other countries, you first preauthorise an arbitrary amount of money (€130 here). Then, you take as much petrol as you need, and the card is charged with the actual amount. Guess what? Both the actual sum *and* the pre-authorised sum have been charged. This is getting seriously annoying. I'm now unable to contact anyone, whether on 365 or my own branch, so I was wondering if I can get anyone call me back to clarify, and solve, the whole situation.

Many thanks.

Hi enas,

Thank you for contacting us on boards.

We are sorry to hear you are unhappy and apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.  We completely understand your frustration.  Can you please send us a private message with your full name, branch and phone number and we will arrange for someone to contact you.  

Thanks

Seán

enas

Bank of Ireland: Sean wrote: »

Hi enas,

Thank you for contacting us on boards.

We are sorry to hear you are unhappy and apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.  We completely understand your frustration.  Can you please send us a private message with your full name, branch and phone number and we will arrange for someone to contact you.  

Thanks

Seán

Hi Seán,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I am now sending you a PM with the details.

EDIT: Boards tells me you can't receive PMs. Who should I send it to? Thanks.

Bank of Ireland: Sean

enas wrote: »

Bank of Ireland: Sean wrote: »

Hi enas,

Thank you for contacting us on boards.

We are sorry to hear you are unhappy and apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.  We completely understand your frustration.  Can you please send us a private message with your full name, branch and phone number and we will arrange for someone to contact you.  

Thanks

Seán

Hi Seán,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I am now sending you a PM with the details.

EDIT: Boards tells me you can't receive PMs. Who should I send it to? Thanks.

Hi enas,

Use the link below my signature to send a private message.  That should work fine for you.

Thanks

Seán

enas

Bank of Ireland: Sean wrote: »

Hi enas,

Use the link below my signature to send a private message.  That should work fine for you.

Thanks

Seán

Thanks. I've sent it.

enas

Just thought to post an update in case anyone in a similar situation reads this.

On the positive side, I've received proper support from Bank of Ireland representatives after I posted here. So many thanks for that, once again. 

Regarding the IKEA transaction, I can confirm that the refund I received was from IKEA. What happened exactly, I'll never know. Regarding the two other transactions, it was just a case of the pre-authorised sum showing as a debit on your online statement, then eventually disappearing without any action required.

In more details, when you have a transaction appearing on your statement, you see a generic description (something saying Visa Debit and the date). Only once the payment is processed, typically after a few working days, it will show the proper description. In the case of the pre-authorised sum, it will always show the generic description, and after a few working days, it will simply disappear, with the corresponding sum of money returning to your balance.

So to summarise, as long as one sees a transaction with the generic description, there is nothing to do, and hopefully it will fall off without doing anything after a few days.

What I still find unacceptable is that this money is made unavailable for a few days, all this for technical reasons which have nothing to do with the customer's finances. When you see that just for paying €25 worth of petrol, there's an additional €130 that's made unavailable for a few days, that can easily  lead to an overdraft, for which presumably one would have to pay interest fees. I would find this highly questionable from a legal point of view, but, thankfully this hasn't happened to me, and as it turns out, I've left the country, so I won't be using this account for the foreseeable future anyway. So I'll leave it at that.