Contactless transactions

LooseMoose

Hi all

Just a query - have just been stung by a load of things that I (thought) had been paid for ages ago (pre-Christmas) and despite having checked my bank balance at a machine over the break, I have checked again today and the picture is very different!

They are all legit, nothing dodgy but interestingly they are all contactless transactions - over the course of four working days. Is it standard practise for these not to reflect in your available balance for a few days?

I’ll be paying closer attention in future, that’s for sure. Tempted to avoid contactless in the future too and perhaps draw out ‘real’ money instead!

Cheers,
James

Guitar_Slinger

I don't know about the timescales, but went out for a drink a couple of times before Christmas and saw loads of people paying for rounds with contactless.

Easily done and no receipts to remind somebody how much they put over the bar.

boogieman

Pending payments should show up on your bank account web page, no? Mine shows the account balance and the available balance, they’re rarely the same. AFAIK the payee gets credited immediately but it takes a couple of days to show up on your account. I guess it’ll be even slower to show up over Xmas. 

LooseMoose

Part of the issue may have been balance checking at ATMs I guess. I have internet banking but it requires codes etc which I didn’t have with me (another lesson learnt!)

Sassafras

boogieman said:

Pending payments should show up on your bank account web page, no? Mine shows the account balance and the available balance, they’re rarely the same. AFAIK the payee gets credited immediately but it takes a couple of days to show up on your account. I guess it’ll be even slower to show up over Xmas. 

Same here. I look at the account balance and I get all excited, then I look at the available balance and the excitement soon turns to depression.
How long does it take them to get it all squared up?

maidenfan

I've noticed that as well, if I use a chip and pin machine then it is more rapidly debited from my account.

joeyowen

Who do you bank with? I'm with HSBC now and they seem slow at updating compared to Barclays

Nothing to do with how I paid, but depends on how it displays pending transactions 

Lestratcaster

I would have thought when you've used it the available and current balances would differ, usually after a couple of days it will debit the account depending what day you used the card, e.g if on a weekend it'll take an extra day for me.

Sassafras

joeyowen said:

Who do you bank with? I'm with HSBC now and they seem slow at updating compared to Barclays

Nothing to do with how I paid, but depends on how it displays pending transactions 

I'm with Barclays and they're often very slow to update my account.
Takes me back to the days of cheques and paying in slips.

m_c

Because contactless doesn't have to verify anything with the bank at the point of sale, it means some payment providers don't actually request the funds for a couple days, so it won't affect your balance until that point.

lustycourtier

Guitar_Slinger said:

I don't know about the timescales, but went out for a drink a couple of times before Christmas and saw loads of people paying for rounds with contactless.

Easily done and no receipts to remind somebody how much they put over the bar.

All transactions show in app. 

Guitar_Slinger

Yes, I have an app which shows current/available balance and pending transactions.  But the OP mentioned difficulty in using internet banking.  Something about new fangled codes

Ravenous

LooseMoose said:

I’ll be paying closer attention in future, that’s for sure. Tempted to avoid contactless in the future too and perhaps draw out ‘real’ money instead!

I tend to hang on to receipts for everything - I dump them when I next see my statement (or get the bill, in the case of my credit card.)

Paper receipts are a bit old fashioned I know, but when you're doing lots of small value transactions in the space of a week it's easy to forget what you've spent on. (Which is what all businesses want you to do of course.)

munckee

I only started doing online banking this year with a barclays app to check individual transactions so I can tell if I get frauded as I wasn't really looking for.  Has really tightened up by money control as a result.  My wife particularly likes my little messages saying "what did you just buy for £30 in boots" etc...

kennedydream1980

I avoid contactless for this very reason, I use on-line banking to keep track of my budget in real time. Some retailers can take up to 4 working days to request the funds from a contactless payment so it throws me completely out of whack. 

Chip and Pin transactions always show up immediately on my account.

Skipped

To avoid any mistakes at the Supermarket checkout, I take my Tin Foil Hat that I usually keep next to my Laptop.

I slip my card under the hat while other people area are making payments.

grungebob

I use apple pay for just about everything and it shows up instantly on my banking app, the few times ive used my card for contactless its also shown up straight away.

57Deluxe

I like the kind of contactless transactions where you go and get what you want when there is no-one there for you to have to make contact with! Usually at 2 in the morning...

strumjoughlamps

grungebob said:

I use apple pay for just about everything and it shows up instantly on my banking app, the few times ive used my card for contactless its also shown up straight away.

It does using iPhone, doesn’t using Apple Watch which is why I went back to just using phone

grungebob

strumjoughlamps said:

grungebob said:

I use apple pay for just about everything and it shows up instantly on my banking app, the few times ive used my card for contactless its also shown up straight away.

It does using iPhone, doesn’t using Apple Watch which is why I went back to just using phone

Mine only does that if I pay via watch without having the phone on me, i think its a plus though. I never forget to put my watch on but sometimes i leave the car with the phone still in the cradle, Im still able to pay for my goods even though my apple watch is a 1st Gen so no cellular.