Charged twice by Tesco instore,check your card balances

Did a grocery shop last weekend at Tesco and paid by debit card,just discovered last night when checking my balance online I had been charged twice for the same transaction,

Spoke to card company,they said 1 payment was taken and the other was on hold by tesco and advised to contact them to have the hold removed,

Tesco said they are aware there was a problem and a 'few' people have reported this issue,BUT,they insist it was a bank problem with some cards and nothing to do with them. They say 1 of the payments has not actually been 'taken' but it is a 'ghost' payment and the funds will be released in the next few working days,

Tesco say as it was a bank issue it is not just their stores involved,it could have happened the same at any store,

Not entirely convinced but just a headsup to check your balances for purchases made last weekend,

It means that my funds will have been tied up between tesco and the bank for about a week,not good at all,

Ok,the funds will be released but not the point,pity someone who did a big grocery shop and maybe needed some of the funds now and can't wait till next week ,

Tesco say there is nothing they can do,you just have to wait

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7th Apr 2010
this happened to me the other week on tesco clothing and took me overdrawn i am yet to see if they charge me.
apparently they hold it for 3 working days or so thats what the abbey has told me. what card was you using i used a visa debit card.
Author
7th Apr 2010
I was using a paypal top up card,paypal told me last night it could be held for 12 days unless tesco release it
7th Apr 2010
My local Tesco have a policy where if they charge you the wrong price for something or charge you for one item more than once, they (Tesco) refund you your original amount overpaid and then you get to keep the item(s) free, up to a maximum of 6 (I think). Wonder if this would be of any interest? Might be worth a try!! I bought my husband a £23 bottle of whisky at Christmas which they charged me for twice and I got it for free! Made a nice cheap present, lol!
7th Apr 2010
We always check credit card bill when it comes and we were charged twice for shopping delivered. Called and got it refunded, but they refunded both of them as a gesture of goodwill so we got £100 of shopping free!
Author
7th Apr 2010
That was good,£100 free shopping!

Tesco are saying that I haven't actually been charged though,it's just on hold,it's a ghost payment,

I spoke to someone from their head office and as far as they were concerned they were taking no blame for it,I told them I'd check again with the bank but one of them was going to have to accept responsibility,

I really don't see why people should have their funds tied up like this
8th Apr 2010
Hi I noticed the same thing on my statement and funds available, have spoken to tesco who are blaming the processing company but they were very helpfull, said if you get the authorisation number for the ghost transaction it will be back in your account within 24hrs, otherwise you may wait a week-not good if you are low on funds !! I also asked for compensation and was given a £10 voucher-result !!
8th Apr 2010
Same happened to me. Only noticed when the bank statement came in a few weeks ago! £22 is a decent amount to be without for 3 weeks
Author
9th Apr 2010
Rang their head office again,it appears this double payment thing was all across the uk with certain cards,they are sending me a £15 gift card as compo
9th Apr 2010
I know one reason this can happen, did your card by any chance get removed from the card machine too early? If you enter your pin, and then your card is pulled out before the machine says it's okay to do so, it can cause this exact situation. On your card, the amount will be place on hold within your account (making it not available, as it thinks it's waiting to come out of your account), but at the checkout, your payment hasn't gone through. You would then need to enter your pin a second time and only the second transaction would actually leave your account, while the first would be on hold for a few days but eventually become available again.

It's happened to me before, and sounds like it could be what happened to you.
Author
9th Apr 2010
Tesco themselves admit they had a problem last weekend,as soon as I mentioned it they knew exactly what I was talking about,

They still kept trying to blame the banks though,their reasoning being they have told the banks to drop the holds they have placed,

My funds are still on hold and regardless of what they say I don't think they'll be available for another week or so,paypal cards work different to other cards,they can hold ghost payments for weeks,

It was a manager who authorised the gift card but now I come to think of it he didn't ask for any proof this had even happened,

I did ask what about the double the difference policy for their mistake but he wasn't having any of that :cry: lol
9th Apr 2010
To be fair, I'm not familiar with a Paypal card but my bank has on at least a couple of occasions in the past released held funds for me that I knew were never leaving my account. They just warned me that if they did actually leave my account and that there wasn't enough money in there to cover it, then it would leave regardless and just land me with unauthorised overdraft charges.
9th Apr 2010
I noticed the other day that Sainsburys appear to have charged my card twice for cigarettes at the kiosk but not for my shopping.

Keeping an eye on it.
Author
9th Apr 2010
Paypal's different though,I reserved a hotel a while ago with the card and they put a payment on hold,paid cash at the hotel but the funds were still held for ages on the card,

Paypal said it was my own fault as the card isn't supposed to be used for booking hotels
23rd Mar 2012
This has happened to me twice at our Lowestoft store, so Tesco shoppers beware!
26th Jul 2012
They just did it on me too. £2 ghost charge, which I knew nothing about. Took the £2 out of my bank account which brought my money lower than my shopping order and delivery charge, then brought out the groceries and at the door, told me i had't enough money in the bank to cover my shopping because they'd taken out "A ghost charge". Then they took the shopping away back to the shop. I phoned them and they explained it was a ghost charge that should have went back into my account and to try re-sheduling my shopping order. I did, guess what? They took another £2 out and haven't paid me the £2 they already owe me. So now in total they'e taken £4 out, plus £5.50 delivery which when you count up = £9:50 to order food.. Next week i'll be going to asda.
8th Jan 2014
Just spent 118 on my shopping been charged twice and they said there isn't anything they can do one very **** of mother of 3 kids who are 3 and under ... Now have to wait till next week to go and finish my shopping off now great ......
8th Jan 2014
tryna
Just spent 118 on my shopping been charged twice and they said there … Just spent 118 on my shopping been charged twice and they said there isn't anything they can do one very **** of mother of 3 kids who are 3 and under ... Now have to wait till next week to go and finish my shopping off now great ......

If Tesco have 'genuinely' charged you twice by accident, then just contact your bank or credit card company, who can reverse the second transaction and get your money back.
31st Jan 2014
ordered a shop online with Tesco and each week spend a considerable amount of money when i went to the checkout typed in card details a message kept on appearing on the screen unable to complete order so this happened to me 4 times and finally gone through the next day checked my bank balance and they took £8 from my account for trying this 4 times it has been a week and not had a penny back. i had a look on there website and it does not state anywhere that there would be basically £2 deposit taken from your bank account so without my authorization i would say its theft
21st Mar 2014
Went to tesco on mon 17th march 2014 done a £75 shop to keep me &my two kids going for the week & the card machine slipped my card out so i tried it again &it was declined. It had been taken out of my bank as a GHOST TRANSACTION so the only way i could get my shopping was to pay for it again &wait A COUPLE of days on the money showing in my account!!
I was so mad that i left the store without my shopping & £75 down :-(
5 working days on & Tesco are saying they dont have my money and its not theyre fault & bank of ireland say its out of there hands tescos have to return it!!!!
So faustrating,not happy now have to go all weekend without the £75?!?
Does anybody know who the middle man is in this all? Somebody has to have my money
Thanks amy x
15th Apr 2014
I paid for my oil for central heating On 3rd April the money left my account with an auth code it has come out again today but checked my bank statement and can't see the one from the 3rd now could this be a ghost payment?
8th May 2014
had this happen to me with santander, they said after 7 working days the money will be returned as its not been asked for
but im left without money now till it does
i think this is out of order