Each cardholder may encounter a situation when purchases are made on it, and money is not debited from the account after the fact. What to do if such a failure occurred in the bank and whether it is possible to remain silent, we will tell in the material.
Free Shopping
Failures in favor of customers are different. One of the types is the so-called free purchase. The payment was successful, the seller issued a check and even received an SMS from the bank with a notice of purchase, but in reality, not a penny was removed from the card account. A variation of this error is a sudden refund to the account after the purchase.
The point here is a technical failure on the bank side wells Fargo routing number. The likelihood that he will not be noticed and the client will remain with his free purchase is extremely small. Most likely, a failure in the system will be detected and corrected, and the buyer will be obliged to pay.
What Happens to the Money
To understand why such situations occur, you need to know the mechanism for making a purchase on a card through a bank. When a client pays in a non-cash way, he receives an SMS or notification that the funds have been debited, and the balance on the account has changed. But in reality, the store does not receive money at this very moment. The purchase amount is only “blocked”, it is actually debited only after receipt of payment documents from the store by the bank. If payment papers did not arrive at the bank during the lock, they will be withdrawn and the money will be returned to the client’s account. It turns out that he did not pay for his purchase.
Murad Shikhmagomedov, head of the department for development of banking products and projects of Freedom Finance Bank, tells in detail about how cashless payments are made: “At the time the customer makes a purchase, only the authorization operation occurs. This is a check of the validity of the card, as well as the availability of the required amount of money on it and the temporary blocking of these funds. At this moment, money is not debited from the client’s account.
The next operation is a transaction. The acquiring bank serving the point of sale receives documents (electronic statements/magazines) about the operation. TD Bank Routing Number Between authorization and a transaction, sometimes elapses, usually from one to three business days. There were times when the period reached 5-6 months. In this case, there are two options for the development of events: the card is still valid and the money will be debited ultimately or the card is expired and then the issuing bank forms a refusal to the transaction. In practice, when a transaction arrives later than a certain date,
Payment systems recommend setting the validity period of authorization for purchase transactions to 30 days. Therefore, the majority of credit organizations, when applying to the client with a statement about the closure of the card, inform him that the actual closure will occur only 30 days after his appeal.
The final operation is the processing of the transaction by the issuing bank. Specifically, at the time of processing the clearing file, funds are debited from the client’s account. The temporary difference between making a purchase and the actual withdrawal of money from the account is explained by the technological feature of conducting transactions with bank cards. The whole chain of processes, from authorization to processing of the clearing file and debiting of money from the client’s account, occurs automatically with the help of software and hardware complexes of credit organizations. The user does not need to contact the bank, except in cases of disagreement with the write-off of a particular amount of funds”.
Thus, if money for the purchase was not written off immediately, it is too early to enjoy such a gift. Perhaps the store delayed the transfer of payment documents to the bank. Most likely, he will go to the bank and the funds will be debited from the card account.
One way or another, the client is definitely not to blame. But what if he is silent about free shopping? Even in this case, no one has the right to call him a fraud.
Commented by lawyer Ekaterina Savina: “When paying for goods by credit card, the buyer applies it to the payment terminal and additionally, depending on the amount and conditions of the bank, enter a PIN code, i.e. electronically signs the contract of sale, which indicates his agreement with the terms of the purchase of goods. The jurisprudence adheres to this position (see Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 17 of June 28, 2012, “On the Consideration by the Courts of Civil Cases on Disputes on the Protection of Consumer Rights”).
On this, the goodwill of the buyer ends and the financial mechanism of the bank begins to work. The bank, in particular, is obliged to control the debiting of funds from the client’s accounts, and for unreasonable debiting of funds he is liable under, for example, Art. 856 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, the bank blocks the funds in the client’s account until receiving documents confirming the purchase of goods from the store containing the details for the transfer. If the store did not send the invoice, then this is the store’s fault. Buyer fraud is absent here as such. there is no criminal intent, no fraud, or breach of trust.
Keep Silent or Tell the Bank
So what to do if after purchases your card does not charge money? It’s definitely not worth blaming it on the generosity of the bank and making large purchases that you can’t afford. Remember that sooner or later the funds will be written off. If they are not on the account, there will be a technical overdraft – minus the account.
It is not always possible to return the collected amount, even though the court. Judicial practice in such cases is ambiguous. Sometimes the courts decide in favor of the client, guided by considerations that the bank’s error was the reason for the write-off. But often the courts refer to what the client should have known about the write-off and understand that interest will be accrued.
If the purchase has passed, but the money has not been withdrawn, we recommend that you inform the bank about technical problems. The same thing should be done if you were mistakenly refunded for an already made purchase. Call the hotline number, give the card or account number and tell us when the transactions occurred for which they did not charge money.
If they say on the phone that there were no failures and everything is in order, we recommend contacting the office. Technically, the law does not oblige buyers to notify of such incidents, but it is in your best interest. An alternative to this option is to not use the card until the causes of technical problems are clarified. If the purchase was a major one and the money was not debited or returned, set aside it so that you can deposit it again.
What if a store makes a complaint to a customer, not a bank? Again – go to the bank for all the clarifications. Report the error and ask for the operation on your card again. But remember that, ideally, the seller should deal with the credit organization himself. Of course, you can stay inactive, but in this case, the store may well file a lawsuit for unjust enrichment. The bank may also do the same, demanding the return of money received as a result of the failure. If at the trial the client cannot prove his case, then he will have to not only pay the funds not written off earlier but also reimburse the legal costs.
