Be Excellent To Each Other

I went to the fabulous TGI Fridays last night and the bill came to about £50 including tip. I paid by debit card but it was declined. I knew I had more than enough wedge in the bank to cover it so the guy tried again and it went through second time with no problems. I got two receipts - a "declined" one and the one that worked. However, I seem to be £100 down according to my online banking. Thing is, it was only yesterday so the money hasn't properly came out yet, it's just "unavailable" to me and there's no indication of who this extra £50 has been taken by. I may have bought something for around £50 and forgot about it, but is it possible that this "declined" transaction has actually charged me anyway?

Obviously I'll find out in due course, but I'm still a little miffed at being seemingly £50 down, and if it turns out TGIs did charge me twice, it's likely I'll have to trek out there and show them my receipt to get them to reverse the transaction, which is a punch in the nuts. So yeah, has it happened to anyone else before?

Also, my debit card has never, ever been declined before - well, at least not when I've actually had more than enough money in the bank to cover the transaction - does this sort of thing happen often? I use my card to pay for stuff pretty much every day and it has never happened before. Have I been scammed by a dimwitted employee?

You may automatically get a refund of the first transaction in a day or two. If not, you will have to phone the bank, hassle, etc.

Screwup, not scam. Hand-held terminals sometimes lose communication with the base unit and the (flawed) software can display "declined" or "card rejected" even when it's a different problem and the transaction has already gone through. I have my suspicions about which make of terminal it was in fact.

Hmm, cheers Kalmar. Guess I just have to wait for the 2nd of July transactions to show up in my account. Might get a free meal out of it as well I suppose!

I had this with my bike on my visa. The card provider explained that the first was technically authorised but not completed. It did indeed disappear after a few days. There are a few brokerage steps and it can fail between auth and completion at any of them. Keep an eye on it.

It sounds like the first £50 was "Earmarked" (Official banking term) to come out your account.

I wouldn't worry about it. It'll normally vanish over the next couple of days and it won't appear on your statement line.

I used to work in a call centre for a bank and you wouldn't believe the hassle I used to have explaining that to people.

Aha! Well stay tuned for an update chaps! Cheers for the help

Yep, your money is just in a holding account for up to three working days.

No help to you if you're about to go overdrawn or something, but it will come back, and there is no scam going on.

What the Vision said. The funds are in your account, but ring fenced in case that first transaction completes. It won't - it failed - but the bank doesn't know that - which is why it failed. It'll be a couple of days but the situation will resolve automatically.