Payment was declined twice and then voided a third time but has still left my account

I recently purchased some food from a fast food establishment and my card was declined twice and then voided a third time, I eventually asked to use another card machine and this time it worked.

Unfortunately the three times I tried have all come out as transactions, I have contacted the merchant and they have told me to show the receipts which show declined/voided to bank and this shall be refunded as they cannot do it from their end? Please can anyone advise as what I should do next to have this money refunded?

Please contact us on the in-app chat with those receipts! Or email help@monzo.com from your registered email :pray:

1 Like

Hi,

Thanks for replying so swiftly, i’ve tried contacting through the app but unfortunately no one seems to be answering. I will email the help team.

Many thanks,
Matt

This happened to me in Tesco yesterday. I reversed the original charge (which is the one Tesco said didn’t go through) in the app - hope I did the right thing!

1 Like

These declines which look like charges normally get reversed by themselves within 7 days - often the same day. It doesn’t happen that often but I just ignore them now when it does.

COps can reverse them straight away if you need the money available now, or there is apparently a new feature to do it yourself within the transaction in the app as @monzo2018 mentions.

It’s an annoying problem that can happen no matter who you bank with, but for banks with instant notifications it’s 100 times more visible (with legacy banks it just shows less ‘Available balance’ for a short period then goes back up without any transaction showing).

The problem is the card terminal will ask for the bank’s ‘authorisation’ (ie. asking them ”is this money available for us to take?”) and if the bank gives the authorisation (ie. “yes this money is available, go for it”) the bank immediately holds your money (and shows a deduction on your account) even though no transaction has taken place yet - in anticipation of ‘presentment (where the merchant says “you said we can take the money and we confirm we now have, so send us the money you’ve been holding from the customer”’.

If the bank authorises it but then there’s an error anywhere in the pipes before presentment then you are going to have that transaction stuck in limbo where it’s been held by the bank but not confirmed or collected by the merchant and an error or rejection receipt on their card terminal.

I think Monzo drops the hold on the money after 7 days of no presentment (although I could be wrong). If you’re lucky the merchant themself or their software will trigger the bank’s hold on the money to be lifted in a few hours or days.

5 Likes

Yeah I used to get this with my previous bank in Tesco as well. Always Tesco!! (And it’s not the only supermarket I regularly shop in so it’s not just the frequency that makes it more likely for me to come across issues there.).

Happened a lot when I worked in Tesco. It was a pain in the rear. There was a help article on what to do when a customer reported it and Tesco can(or could when I worked there) reverse the issue fairly quickly but it was a help article few staff knew existed… they always fall off after some time just annoying that they happen in the first place