If it didn't accept the card you wouldn't have had to put a pin in!
If they were on the con you'd have had to either sign or put your pin in.
Did you enter a pin?
Also I'd check the other cards you tried to make sure they haven't also taken out £300!
I think your bank will maybe stump up the cash and try and claim it back off the shop but with no receipts for the cash purchase I don't know where you'd stand!

Hello Chivas.

My girlfriend did enter a PIN, then the shop staff said the transaction had not gone through.

With hindsight I suppose we should have perhaps made more of a challenge about this at the time. Fingers crossed it will turn out to be a mistake that can be rectified (and not the staff pocketing the cash) but I want to be best prepared in case it doesn't and we need to take some further action.

Cheers.

HI,
Hope all goes well for you. We've been victims of debit card fraud ourselves and it's heartbreaking.
If it turns out that it was a genuine mistake (someone will obviously have to contact the shop with the date and estimated time of the purchase) you should have no probs obtaining a refund. However, if they were out to steal your money I wouldn't hold out much hope. Without any receipts for the transaction it would be your word against theirs.
Good luck and for future reference I'm sure you'll insist on receipts.

Looks like you have been unlucky here, I would never use any cards abroad apart from using the atms when the Travellers Cheques run out. I would be scared of using a card somewhere to pay for an item as it is an easy target even with chip and pin.
Probably best to stick to local currency cash or Travellers cheques for purchases.
I hope it is just a mistake and you manage to get it back somehow!

I know this doesn't help, but even if a transaction is cancelled, there is always a printed confirmation of that fact.

Picking-up on Bunny74's comments - I'd prefer to use a credit card abroad in preference to cash.

Cash is mine. I've had to withdraw it from a machine using a card and were it to be stolen I've no redress (other than via travel insurance). Also, using the debit/credit card to withdraw the cash in the first instance opens you to a small possibility of fraud,

Using a credit card in shops, restaurants and the like is risky - but it's the credit card issuers money that is at risk.

If your credit card is cloned and misused your next statement will show amounts you are unaware of. You query these with the card issuer, they place a hold on the amounts pending their enquiries and until that process is complete they cannot take your money. Worst case, they find the transactions appear legitimate - the card issuer still has to obtain payment from you. Generally, the transactions are found to be bogus and the amounts are written-off by the card issuer.

If you use your own debit card in place of a credit card it's again your OWN money that's being risked - to the extent of your balance plus overdraft. You have to fight the bank to get your money back.

I suspect the real lesson here is to obtain a receipt that states clearly the method of payment. I hope you have £300 on several other cards as this will greatly strengthen your argument that a fraud has been commited. Failing that, I do hope this is a simple error and the shop refunds you via the bank.

Mind you thinking back the exact same thing happened to me at a self service tesco checkout a while ago. I swipped my goods , entered my card and pin number then it just died and the assistant came over and said it didn't work I hadn't paid so I had to do it all again.
My bank statement came a few days later and exactly the same amount was taken out twice within 30 seconds.
Obviously I marched down to tesco for my money back, but when Its so many miles away its awkward.

Hi Random

Sorry to hear about that.

We had a problem a few years in Puerto Pollensa when we used our credit card to pay for a meal one evening. When we received our statement the amount had been taken out twice.

I called them immediately after receiving our statement and they sorted it our within the week, the money was credited to our account on the next statement.

Hope it works out for you too.

However, this was the very first time anything like this had happened to us, and we always use our VISA card to pay for meals and purchases.

Cheers

Elaine

Thank you for the sympathy and input everyone.

At the time it certainly seemed liked a genuine error. There were two young ladies serving and they appeared to be having trouble putting the transaction through and said something along the lines of "we have a lot of problems with those cards". No other transactions appear to have been put through so I'm hoping we weren't just gullible.

Of course now I wish we had been more on the ball with demanding receipts etc. Fingers crossed the bank put in a robust challenge as I can imagine that a shop isn't going to be mad keen to refund £300.

The annoying thing is that it has for now put a real downer on what was otherwise a good holiday.

Hi.. You say you went to draw cash out to pay the £300 in cash as told card didnt work.....Record of cash withdrawn should tally date time and amount ...

Tweetie Pie

The times do tally of the cash withdrawl and the transaction although not the amounts as we already had some cash.

Apparently the latest from my girlfriend's bank is that these issues can take up to 10 weeks to resolve!

The thing that really irritates me about this whole issue is that it does only seem to be possible due to the new chip and PIN system.

In the good old days they would put the transaction through and then once it had been authorised by the bank you would sign for it.

Now there is the possibility that after you have entered the PIN a shop can tell you that the transaction hasn't worked and you can't be sure until you have checked your bank statement.

Seems a step back in security to me!

you might find this thread interesting

When using Chip and Pin if a transaction doesn't go through you should get a printed receipt from the machine saying transaction void or transaction declined. I know it's no use to you now but maybe for future reference insist on having a printed receipt.

I hope you manage to resolve the matter soon, I know I would be very upset over it too. Good luck

Shell

I appreciate your sound advice shell and in almost all cases it would apply. However, supposethe shopkeeper/staffer is dodgy. Suppose it did go through but they simply tell you it didn't. They persist with the line that it not only didn't "go through" but the machine never even established contact and hence was unable to print ANYTHING. They could equally say, "Your card cannot be read by the machine......do you have another one?" when the first card has in fact been processed perfectly.

I never thought of that Mike, I was just thinking that it was standard practice to get a receipt but of course if they are dodgy then that may not be the case. I'm off to Puerto Pollensa on Monday and I've booked my hotel direct and I was wondering whether to use my visa or debit card to pay off the balance when we arrive, reading your advice Mike I think I'll use my visa card

Regards Shell

picking up on shells comment about chip and pin, i work for a major electrical retail company and any card that is declined or does not go through for any reason will not produce a receipt saying declined or void. our machines just ask for the process to be started again.
good luck anyway on sorting this out and keep us posted.

Sorry for giving out the wrong info, we have a chip and pin machine at work and when any card doesn't go through we always seem to get a receipt saying either declined or void, I thought this was the case with all machines.

Shell

Shell, don't feel bad!

We were obviously caught a bit on the hop and in future (if we ever use the debit card again) we will want to take the receipt from the machine ourselves.

This was either a genuine mistake by the staff or a c.o.n. and it appears that we have to wait for the bank to get their buttocks in gear before we will know either way.
We were hoping to book a second holiday this year, but unfortunately my girlfriend won't do this until this issue of the £300 has been resolved.

Cheers.