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Debit Card Payments Guide
Pending payments
What is a pending Point of Sale transaction?
When you make a point of sale payment using your debit card, the payment does not fully debit your account right away.
It will show as pending and only debit fully when the retailer processes the payment. For UK payments this is usually up to 3 working days and for international payments up to 10 working days.
However, what does happen at the time you make the payment is that the amount of the payment is immediately taken off the available funds of your account, so that you know you don’t have this money to spend.
Important to know: On some occasions, the retailer may take longer than the usual 3 days (or 10 days for international payments) to process the payment. In this situation the payment amount will re-credit your funds available balance, so you have to be careful not to spend these funds as the payment is still due to debit.
The retailer is within their rights to do this as the product or service will have been provided.
Can pending transactions be cancelled?
No. Whilst a transaction is in a pending state it cannot be cancelled.
Recurring debit card payments
What is a recurring payment/ subscription?
A recurring payment or subscription is a type of payment that allows you to pay for recurrent bills (e.g. utilities, subscriptions, loan repayments). Common examples of these are Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+.
How do I cancel a recurring debit card transaction or subscription?
This payment method is different to direct debits and standing orders in the way it can be cancelled.
If you’re looking to cancel a subscription, you need to do this by contacting the retailer or service you wish to cancel direct.
Important to know: Even if you cancel the debit card the subscription is set up on, this type of payment can be re-directed to the new replacement card.
How do I dispute a transaction?
If a transaction has come off and it doesn't feel right follow these steps:
- Log into the app
- Click on the transaction
- Select ‘Report a dispute, fraud or scam’
- Then follow the remaining steps that suit the situation
If you do not have the app then follow the instructions on the Retail Disputes page.
Declined payments
If a debit card payment you are making is declined, the first step is to check the following:
- Check the expiry date of your card. Is it still valid?
- Check the available balance of the account your card is linked to. Are there enough available funds?
- If you have received a decline notification to your mobile phone, check the information provided.
- Check what methods of payment are accepted by the company you are paying. Do they accept your card scheme (Visa/Mastercard)?
If you have checked the above, we recommend you chat with us so we can assist you further. In some cases transactions may be declined because of a specific rule set up by the bank e.g. in relation to Fraud protection. More information can be provided by chatting to Cora.
First, in order for us to help you as quickly as possible, we need you to log in to your digital banking or mobile app and chat to Cora, please see the steps below.
Digital Banking - Log into Digital Banking. From your home screen, click 'chat to Cora' to start a chat and type 'debit card declined'
Mobile app - Go to the home screen of your mobile banking app. Tap 'Help' at the bottom of the screen, then 'chat to Cora' to start a chat and type 'debit card declined'
If you're unable to log in, please chat to Cora using the button below.
Have you met Cora, your digital assistant?
Cora can help you with a wide range of queries, including this one.
Decline notifications
We will send you a notification when certain types of transactions have been declined. There are some instances when we will not send a notification e.g. if the transaction is being declined due to retailer processing or network issues as it means we will not have received the transaction request. Some examples of decline reasons are as follows and the notification will contain the reason.
- Fraud.
- Insufficient funds.
- Enter your PIN.
- Re-enter details.
- Card Invalid.
- PIN tries exceeded.
Refunds
When will a refund credit my account?
Unfortunately we cannot give exact timescales for when a refund will credit your account, as we don’t have visibility of refunds before they reach your account.
The retailer should be able to confirm the usual timescale they expect it to reach you.
For a specific type of refund, where the retailer processes it as an authorisation (most retailers currently don’t process in this way at present), we will send you a notification that will advise that a refund has been processed.
For all refund types you should receive a notification to advise that the funds have credited your account.
What should I do if my refund doesn’t credit my account?
While there are no set timescales for how long a refund will take, if you are waiting for a refund we must allow 15 days for it to show on your account.
If it hasn't been 15 days yet and you have concerns, we recommend that you discuss your concerns with the retailer.
If you haven't received a refund after 30 days from the date on your refund receipt, we may be able to help.
We will require a few things from you to enable us to review your dispute:
- A written summary of your dispute including confirmation of how you have attempted to resolve with the company and details of any response given.
- A copy of the refund receipt showing at least the last 4 digits of the card being refunded, the date and the amount of the refund. If you do not have a refund receipt, we would be unable to help and you would need to raise your concern with the company.
Cancelled or returned the goods or services but haven't received a refund?
If you’ve cancelled or returned something (within the allowed time frame), or the retailer agreed to give you a refund, and you haven’t received it. There’s no need to call as we’ve created a simple online form to make resolving this as smooth as possible.
Open the form and select “You’ve cancelled or returned the goods or services, but you haven’t received a refund” and then follow the on-screen prompts. The form will take approximately 5 minutes to complete and you will receive automatic updates throughout your claim.