So I have had a transaction where the authorised amount has been ‘released’ by Monzo because the merchant hasn’t taken the payment after 7 days.
This is a bit weird. The merchant in question is a credit card and the payment on the credit card is still showing.
I don’t like things sitting in flux like this so I am not sure if it’s worth if it’s worth proactively contacting the company in question or if I just leave it assuming either they’ll take it or reverse the payment? Does anyone else have experience of his happening?
This was Ian’s response when someone asked about extending the hold to 30 days. Worth reading the full post, lots of good details about the issues around how authorisations work (and don’t work):
This has happened to me for 2 payments made to Argos on 10th May, and a payment made to a petrol garage on 12th May. Both Argos transactions were refunded on 17th, and the garage one today (19th).
My friend has also just confirmed it’s happened to him, and he has received a refund for a petrol station transaction processed yesterday.
I’m not sure if the argument about undue strain on COps is valid anymore.
I noticed yesterday that questioning a hold transaction for £1 gave me the option to reverse it myself without speaking to anyone.
The same could apply to larger holds. I understand they may not let you remove those yourselves straight away, but after 7 days a button could let you auto reverse it yourself.
You’d be in the same position as now but in the case of genuine transactions that are processing slowly these won’t mess up your available balance (as a Shell transaction is doing for me today!)
I had a delayed transaction with McDonalds. I logged the transaction with YNAB. I paid contactless and it went through. It took a month for McDonalds to claim and it never showed in Monzo. I contacted Monzo who told me to contact McDonalds who said they couldn’t do anything. There is such a thing as a free lunch…or breakfast in this case
Just another data point, I’m seeing the same thing on an Amex charge card so it’s not just their credit cards. Payment made on Friday as above. It’s quite a substantial amount so I’m surprised to see it so easily ‘reversed’ by Monzo. Presumably if I went out and spent it all Monzo would still have to honour the payment? Obviously, I won’t go and spend it but there must be a significant credit risk there!
This is a question I’ve always wondered about, I’ve had conflicting responses for this before; in some cases they claim they need to honor the payment, but in some others they say they can reverse it.
Same happened this morning for me too. This is the first time ever this has happened to my account at any bank. Has Monzo’s policy recently changed? Why is there a spike of these unsettled transactions happening today?
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