I use online banking and have noticed several times about once a month a 1 pound difference in account balance and available balance. This 1 pound disappears and then re-appears again in two days time. It doesn't leave the account, no transaction is processed, and it’s just unavailable. Now I know that I haven't used my debit card for 1 pound.

I called the bank and asked them what was going on and they couldn't say as the transaction hadn't gone through, but just earmarked. Therefore they were unable to trace the transaction and help me.

They did give one very strange explanation about an old debit card number can still be used to take money out of the account, but this only happens in special circumstances. To which I asked. What was the point of renewing debit cards if the old one can still withdraw money?

Question to you, has anybody else experienced this disappearing re-appearing pound??

I know it's only a pound, but its the fact that someone can make my money unavailable to me.

Hi

My guess would be that this is a feature of the banks accounts system.

It is probably to safeguard the account balance from ever going below £1. If £1 is always held in reserve, so that it cannot be used within transaction, this would enable this to happen.

This makes perfect sense to me but whether the bank staff would know this I doubt. Having worked for a bank in IT development for a period, staff on the shop floor tend to only know what they can see at the front end.

Huckster

Thanks for the reply, but I doubt that is the case of safegaurding as this only occurs once a month for a couple of days. If they were trying to safegaurd the account from going below a pound then that pound would surely be permanently unavailable. By safegaurding the account going below a £1 would also mean a potentail loss of revenue through fines for going overdrawn.

My suspicion is they are doing it to accounts where no one will really notice a pound missing and then usinng that money for some other means. If they are doing it 500K or more accounts, then that is a lot of cash to play with for a couple of days.

Hi

I was thinking the type of account required a minimum balance of £1 and you were not allowed to go overdrawn.

If it is not that type of account why only £1. They use your money in the account to lend and to invest as part of their normal practice.

You will remember when the Northern Rock problems arose, that financial analysts were saying that if eveyone asked for their money, NR would not have enough. This is because most money deposited is lent or invested and only a percentage is held by banks.

I would think this is an IT related issue and not the banks trying to make money from £1 per month from every account, for a few days each month.

You could submit an enquiry to the banks complaints department about the accuracy of your account records.

Huckster

I think I'll submit that query.

Thanks

Some retailers do this as a means of testing your card to make sure its valid at the point of sale. I have had this occur when ordering photographs online from Truprint, it then returns to normal after a few days... another retailer who uses this practice is Tesco If you pay for petrol on your card.