Bank account balances always wrong on BH weekends

Fiona

Hi there

Every bank holiday so far this year my account balance has been normal on a Thursday, then on Friday a transaction disappears and then my balance is left inflated for the whole bank holiday weekend.

Its starting to get infuriating at this stage because its all to easy to get left short and then get charged for your mistake.

Please can you explain why this has started happening as it was never issue before?

Ally Dick

Happens every bank holiday. When you do a transaction in a shop, a "ghost" transaction comes out of your account, and your balance is decreased, but the real transaction won't come through until the retailer sends in their file. The ghost transactions only stay on your account for a maximum number of days, and then they drop off. if the retailer puts through their file quickly, the process will be seamless, and you won't notice that the swap has taken place. If you are logged on late in the evening, you will sometimes see two transactions on the account temporarily. That's the ghost and real transaction temporarily co-existing. Within a short space of time, the ghost one is gone, and the real one has been applied. Some people panic when they see the two transactions, but the balance only reflects one of these transactions, so no cause for alarm there.

Now on a bank holiday, the system goes into a bit of a tailspin. The retailer won't get the real transaction in till Tuesday morning at the earliest, but in the meantime, the ghost one has dropped off the system already, and your balance has been adjusted so that it looks like the ghost transaction never existed.
The thing is, if the shop made a mistake, and put through a debit of say €999 instead of €99, it's the process of the ghost transaction "dropping off" that fixes the problem, because when they put through the real transaction, it will only be for €99. So the delay between the ghost and the real transaction is designed that way to help the consumer.

Personally I think there should be a better way of doing all this. If the retailer made a mistake per above, the customer would be stuck for the €900, until the ghost transaction dropped off! It's not very satisfactory. It's also fair to say that once the ghost transactions have dropped off, the balance will increase, even though there could be real transactions pending. You could spend the money and then when the real transaction hits, you could be charged overlimit charges if you go overdrawn

Fiona

Thanks for the detailed response!

You need to be quick to know what transactions are 'ghost' so you don't overspend.... it would be great if there was a better way but I understand it a bit better now!

Ally Dick

The bank is spending money on an overhaul of their computer system so hopefully this will be improved

Gooser14

Fiona wrote:

Every bank holiday so far this year my account balance has been normal on a Thursday, then on Friday a transaction disappears and then my balance is left inflated for the whole bank holiday weekend.

This happens all the time with BoI. It's especially noticeable where contactless debit card payments are involved.

Sono

I don’t have an answer but I use a revolut card from time to time and when I use it I get a notification instantly of the transaction and the balance is deducted immediately, how can these banks not do the same? I agree with you OP it is infuriating that this happens.

Ally Dick

Sono wrote: »

I don’t have an answer but I use a  revolut card from time to time and when I use it I get a notification instantly of the transaction and the balance is deducted immediately, how can these banks not do the same? I agree with you OP it is infuriating that this happens.

And not all of the big banks have this problem. AIB seem to use a different calculation method to ensure that the balance is up to date

Sono

The banks should be able to notify you of a transaction immediately and show a true balance at all times, it’s very frustrating that they can’t provide the service revolut does

Fiona

Sono wrote: »

The banks should be able to notify you of a transaction immediately and show a true balance at all times, it’s very frustrating that they can’t provide the service revolut does

Agree it was there on Thursday when I made the purchase and then gone again on the Friday never to be seen until tomorrow!

A bit like me leaving work on a bank holiday!!!!

Tow

The 'Ghost Transactions' are a throwback to the days batch computing and limited computing power.  The problem was they could not update the main database in real time, or even perform real time queries against it.  For example, ensuring a customer did not exceed their daily ATM withdrawn limit, or at a more basic level, take all their money out in the branch and then do the same from an ATM.  At one stage this was possible...  Solution, stick another system in front of the main one, to take the work load.  It holds the balance and a couple of days worth of transactions, allowing a quick total of a day's transactions before allowing an ATM withdrawal etc.  Now, outsource the lot adding more systems (with their own databases) for Payment Processing, Internet Banking, Mobile Apps, Credit cards etc...  

Bank of Ireland Reps

Hi All,

Thanks for getting in touch.

When checking your balance through your browser www.365online.com it will show the pending transactions and completed transactions. When your card payments debit the account, they will show under pending payments online.

Depending on when the retailer processes the payment, it may cause the debit to disappear from the account and then reappear a few days later. Although this is not always the case, we understand why this may cause confusion when it occurs. We will certainly forward your views on this to our Online Support Team and appreciate your time taken here to discuss this with us. 

Many Thanks
Alison

Ally Dick

Bank of Ireland Reps wrote: »

Hi All,

Thanks for getting in touch.

When checking your balance through your browser www.365online.com it will show the pending transactions and completed transactions. When your card payments debit the account, they will show under pending payments online.

Depending on when the retailer processes the payment, it may cause the debit to disappear from the account and then reappear a few days later. Although this is not always the case, we understand why this may cause confusion when it occurs. We will certainly forward your views on this to our Online Support Team and appreciate your time taken here to discuss this with us. 

Many Thanks
Alison

The ghost transaction should be kept active for longer then it is. Understandably that cannot be indefinite as mistakes can only clear out when a ghost transaction disappears, and is replaced by a permanent transaction, or not replaced by anything if it was a mistake in the first place.