Contactless Payments dont show up in available balance!!!

A question about : Contactless Payments dont show up in available balance!!!

I have had an issue with HSBC (business ac but should not make any difference for domestic) as follows:

Rang yesterday to see why A/C was not showing all payments and adviser confirmed that all debit card payments should show on my 'available balance'.

Account now overdrawn by Ј13 they charge me a daily ammont for going overdrawn

phoned back and after some digging found the offending payment (Coop Ј14 contactlees payment)

HSBC confirmed thta these payments do not show up in available balance!

This means there re serious disadvantages to using this form of payment and has probably ended up with a lot of people paying a lot of overdraft charges.

The adviser form yesterday did not know avbout the contactless issue OR DID KNOW and they are keeping this under wraps. The adviser today only admitted to the contactless isue after I queried which exact paymenthad caused the issue. No mentin of 'it may be a contacless payment'.

I believe the banks have a serious issue here and may be liable for refund of a great deal of charges as this does not appear to be a transarent process.

The adviser made refferece to the guide sent out wit hthe contactless card (and offerd to send e a copy which I should receive shortly). When pressed on where the guide specifically stated 'contactless payments may not apprear in your available balance......' I was palmed off with 'I dont have time to find the specific content.

My belief is that thsi guide will not contain any reference to a change of conditions but will see when I have reviewed the leaflet.

The scale of this is probably quite large in relation to charges. I appreciate thta it is the account golder's responsibility to manage thier account, but if the bank clearly states 'your balance is showing all payments made on your debit card in the available balance', some (probably a fair number, especialy those on low incomes) customers are bound to fall foul of this and go overdrawn, incurring charges.

My point is that the banks are profitting from this change in service and that the change is determental to the customer.

I recommend those on a tight budget DO NOT USE CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS!

Best answers:

• Isn't this more of an online/offline issue than contactless per se? In other words, if some or all contactless payments are processed without online authorisation then HSBC won't actually know about them until the retailer submits them for settlement....
• So your blaming the bank for your own inability to keep track of the money you spent?
  I make contactless payments all the time and have been aware that they don't appear on my online banking straight away. It can take up to 3 days for a contactless payment to show as being paid.
  The only serious disadvantage of this type of payment to you is that you can't manage to leave money in your account to cover the payment making yourself overdrawn.
  Its up to you to be aware of what your spending and how much you have in your account and budget accordingly.
  From what I can see and how many other banks operate their contactless cards, HSBC have done nothing wrong at all.
• These issues crop up every few months.
  If you're running close to zero (or your overdraft limit) use cash or a credit card!
• Too many people think the available balance showing in their current account is equal to the money they have available to spend.
  I wonder whether there is a MSE article that addresses this misconception?
• To be fair, I am with the OP on this. I tend to use my available balance to know how much I have in my account. Obviously I have an idea approximately, but if I have Ј100 showing but Ј80 in available I can then think "Oh yes I spent Ј8 in M&S and Ј12 in Next", but with contactless you cannot do that.
  However, the others are correct in saying HSBC can't do anything. Unless they are told about the pending payment, they can't show it on your account.
• The person in the best position to know what has been spent from your bank account at any moment in time is you.
  Take responsibility.
• Learn how to manage your finances without online banking or try to stop living close to zero.
• Yes - it's online/offline. But many contactless payments are offline. You simply need to have keep track of your spending.
  The bank simply does not know what you have used your card for for these payments until the merchant tells them.
  It comes down to a trade off between convenience (not entering pin/quick payment) and immediate comprehensiveness.
• If your card is a full debit card then the chances are that most contactless payments will not be pre-authorised. This is probably because contactless is meant to be fast. I have noticed most of my contactless payments are instant, with only the odd one having a short delay whilst authorisation is sought. Having said that, I have Paypal card which is 'always authorise', and the contactless payments on that take a few seconds to go through.
• I've been with hsbc for 15 years and love their systems (unlike the Natwest one which I tried as was opening a joint acc) but this new contact less problem is driving me crazy and I complained to hsbc the other day. If you spend as much as I do on little transactions I need to be able know my EXACT available balance. Not one minus the 10 contactless payments I make a day. Ive been noticing errors for a while but then other days it was fine and now I've realised why its very annoying and you're right, there must be thousands of people going into their over drafts without realising until it's too late