If you use your debit card, and the amount in you account isn't enough for the purchase,

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what happens? Two days ago my car battery died, and I called AAA to get a jump start. The local contractor (University Towing) came and got it started, and also ran a test on the battery (which was at least 4.5 years old) and the testing machine determined the battery needed to be replaced. I agreed to let University Towing replace it on the spot, as I was in a hurry to get somewhere. The bill for all this was $107.70. I signed the bill for that amount, and gave him my debit card number (a Visa number.)
Friday morning I look at my checking account online, and see that they actually charged me $707.70, instead of $107.70. The charge has been sitting as "pending" in my account, and has not posted yet. I only had about $350 in the account at the time, but the balance now reads zero. Apparently my account is frozen until either more money comes in to cover that $707.70 or else if University Towing cancels that transaction and issues a new one for the proper amount.
I called University Towing four times on Friday, and each time they told me, "He'll call you back." But he never did call me back. Finally on Friday evening I called them again, and got a different person, and she took down my information and called their manager, and aske me to come in this morning at 9 and they would straighten it all out. And to ask for Oscar, the manager. I showed up at 9 a.m. this morning and Oscar was nowhere to be found. Another employee told me Oscar's car broke down and he would be in later. He suggested I "go get some breakfast" and come back later. I asked if anyone else could handle the matter, and nobody else there except Oscar knew the proper codes to do it. They called Oscar and he talked to me on the phone and said he would come to my house later today and take care of it. I agreed to this.
I was ready to leave when Randall, the guy who put the battery in, showed up even though it was his day off. He apologized for the mixup and showed me the paperwork, though he showed me the wrong customer's paperwork. He neglected to bring his terminal and phone numbers to do the cancellation, so I followed him to his own house and waited outside while he made a string of phone calls, about an hour in total, to try to get it done over the phone. He finally located my original transaction so at least he had the transaction number, but he was unable to find his merchant number or call the right people. Unsuccessful at this, he went with me to my bank to try to straighten it out.
The woman we talked to at the bank told him that if he had caught it yesterday, he could have simply voided the transaction and it would have been taken off my account immediately. Since it was more than one day since the transaction was sent through, he had to cancel or credit it a different way, and that way would not be posted until Tuesday. So by their actions, my checking account is virtually frozen out of existence for four days. Randall said he would go down to the office and cancel the transaction on a different terminal, but even this will not free up my money until that goes through. As I am typing this, they still haven't even put in the cancellation, and the original $707.70 charge is still sitting in my account as "pending."
Randall was very apologetic about it, and even offered to cash a personal check from me for $600, so that I could put the cash in my account, but I was so tired from all this that I thanked him anyway and went home. After four phone calls the first day, and spending 2 1/2 hours with them on the second day, these people were still unable to correct their error.
So I guess I have to sit and wait it out until Tuesday before I can even spend any of my own money again. What I am wondering is, if there was $350 in my checking account to begin with, and they tried to charge $707.70 using my debit card, why wasn't the transaction rejected right off the bat, by my bank? There wasn't enough money in the account to cover that transaction, so why didn't my bank simply refuse it? Why did they allow it to come in as a pending transaction?

[Kali]

1. You probably have a decent rating, and they have you set to be able

to do larger transactions. I don't know - it seems to take a long time to figure all this stuff out, but I know my credit union won't let you go over at all on their visa debit card, but my regular bank has let me go several hundred before...of course if the deposit to cover it doesn't get in before it is finalized 30 bucks a pop, usually twice for everything, because since you have no money they need to screw you over twice by resubmitting everything....banks::grr:

The tow company sounds like a bunch of morans, but at least they seem to be trying to help and it sounds like it will eventually get straightened out. Of course no one will be compensating YOU for all the time you have to spend babysitting the process :grr:

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3. Thanks - if they had bothered to take seriously even 1 of my 4 phone calls yesterday

I wouldn't be in the idiotic jam today that they put me in. They could have easily voided it yesterday - but they were too busy answering other people's calls and raking in more money, to bother with dealing with an existing customer. Instead they gave me the brush-off and made it a much longer ordeal for me. And if my bank charges me $30 for going overdrawn, when it wasn't my fault, it was their fault, I will have to spend even more time trying to fight that charge!

[flamingyouth]

2. Because the bankcard processor doesn't have access to your account

They don't know that you don't have the cash to cover it; they just figure you have a decent record and approve it. It takes a couple of days for these charges to post.

On edit - yeah, it really sucks that the guy didn't void the transaction on the same day. That would have saved you a whole lot of hassle here. Now it's going to take a lot longer to get this mess straightened out. Good luck!

[Floogeldy]

4. Could you boil that down to a specific question about banking?

Thanks. ;)

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7. If you use your debit card, and your account doesn't have enough for the purchase, what happens?

[Floogeldy]

11. It depends upon my agreement with the bank.

I have a $700 overdraft privilege agreement. That is to say, if there are $0 in my bank account, I can withdraw $700 at the ATM, anyway. I will have to pay $25 for the privilege within 34 days. Of course, if any other charges come in to that account in the meantime, there will be a $25 for each of those, too.

;)

[petronius]

5. Have you tried contacting AAA about it?

They'd probably like to know what's going on with their contractor, and they may have leverage with the bank wrt overdraft fees and so on...

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8. I am preparing a letter to send to them about this, since U.T. is a contractor to them.

However, the transaction between me and U.T. technically doesn't have much to do with AAA, even though I called them initially. The driver told me he cancelled the AAA call. So it was basically between me and U.T., as far as the actual banking transaction. They are who is listed on my bank statement. The battery they put in my car says AAA on it, but that seems to me to be beside the point. I am going to send a letter to AAA about it though. Thanks

[Hosnon]

6. Banks let the transactions go through because they love those overdraft charges. The bank

would have covered it and then hit you with a fee.

But if they did, either the bank would have to refund the fee or the auto company would have to fix it. No one can take money out of your checking account that you didn't authorize.

Bottom line: The hoops suck but that's "life" I guess. The auto company should definitely give you a lot of free service for the mix-up.

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9. Thanks.

[zonkers]

10. Bob, I hate my debit card. I have been staying at hotels and I have to fight

phantom charges and holds tooth and nail. It makes me dizzy.