Caxton FX currency card trapped my money

[concentrik]

Anyone else had this? You draw cash from a French bank - 100 euros - it gives you the dosh but adds another 100 euros as 'pre-authorisation' so a 'pending' charge goes on your account.

Which the bank forgets to release, so 100 euros is frozen till you contact Caxton and ask where the frick your money is?

Then they 'adjust' the balance to remove the 'pending' which releases your 100 Euros.

Too late when you've tried to use the card to pay for something, thinking you had 100E left, only to have the card declined!

Caxton response? "Not our fault. It's the merchant. We can't do anything about it"

Is this accepted as the norm? Am I being unreasonable in expecting to be able to spend my own money?

 

[little_roundtop]

We've used our CaxtonFX card in Greece for the last 2 years and never had anything like this happen. We only use our card for getting cash from ATMs though, we've never used it to make a purchase.

 

[telford_mike]

I've used my Caxton card all over the place for ATM withdrawals and purchases and have never come across anything like this. Caxton do advise in their FAQ that these cards shouldn't be used for security deposits in hotels, or in automatic filling stations, as the pre-authorisation sums can take a while to find their way back into your account.

Doesn't sound like this is what happened in your case however - did you withdraw your cash over the counter at the French bank?

 

[concentrik]

Doesn't sound like this is what happened in your case however - did you withdraw your cash over the counter at the French bank?

From an ATM. This is what Caxton said:

1) The error was made on behalf of CREDIT MUTUEL,ROSCOFF,FR on 1st June and CREDIT MUTUEL,BREST LA FREG,FR on the 28th May. On both occasions you had made withdrawals of €40.

When these withdrawals were made, the merchant recognised that you had made the withdrawal but the transaction had not settled. This is what we call the pre –authorisation. When the transaction did settle (cleared your account) , the preauthorisation was not removed from the bank, meaning the account believed there was still €80 pending to come out, when infact the €80 had already left the account. This is what lead your available balance to reflect a minus figure.



2) We cannot prevent this from happening as this is to do with the merchant. If we are notified we can take the steps to make sure you have the correct available funds.

What on earth does 'settled'mean?

 

[telford_mike]

Some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_hold

Still seems a bit odd though.

 

[Bobobolinsky]

Automatic petrol stations are the worst for pre authorising. Sounds like 2 x 40 yoyos.

 

[rascacio]

We've used our CaxtonFX card in Greece for the last 2 years and never had anything like this happen. We only use our card for getting cash from ATMs though, we've never used it to make a purchase.

Hi little_roundtop, I've also never had a problem using mine anywhere including Greece last year, however as I am heading over there at the beginning of July I was just wondering if there were any difficulties getting Euros out of the bank machines at the moment ?

Any information you may have would be most re-assuring / helpful

Cheers

 

[little_roundtop]

Hi little_roundtop, I've also never had a problem using mine anywhere including Greece last year, however as I am heading over there at the beginning of July I was just wondering if there were any difficulties getting Euros out of the bank machines at the moment ?

Any information you may have would be most re-assuring / helpful

Cheers

I'm on Crete which is always a little different from the rest of Greece. But no, there are no difficulties at all getting cash out of ATMs. In fact, unless you're going to Athens you'll be hard pressed to notice anything different here. Life goes on as usual.

As a general point; nobody should put off coming to Greece because of what you see on the news. The Greeks are (and always have been) warm and friendly - even to the Germans . The Greeks know than now more than ever they need foreign tourists. You will meet no hostility, no shortages, and no riots (except perhaps in the very large cities) and everything is working as well as it normally does.

Come to Greece, they need you now more than ever......

 

[Cloven]

Never had this problem at an ATM but I used my a Caxton FX card a while ago at an automated fuel pump at Geneva airport for CHF56 (€45).

When I got home, I found that €120 had been deducted from the card. I phoned Caxton & they very politely informed that this was standard procedure and that once the payment had been processed the balance would be refunded to my card, but this might take up to 15 days. In fact it took just 3 days but all the same, if I had not had at lest €120 on the card, I could not have bought fuel.

Details from the Caxton website:

Hotels, car hire, bicycle hire and deposits of all kinds
Don’t use your Caxton card for the security card swipe when you check into a hotel or hire a car. Use any other card for this and only use your Caxton card to settle the bill. This is because of something called ‘shadowed funds’. When a card is swiped you might not know that a ‘shadow’ is put on the card. Your Caxton card holds a prepaid balance and the shadow will stop you from getting to your travel cash. A shadow can last for up to 30 days. Use any other card for the security swipe and your Caxton card when the payment transaction is required.

Automated petrol stations on the continent (not just France) usually take a security deposit of €120 (Normal approval) when you first swipe your card. No money actually leaves your account at this point, but your available balance is reduced by €120.

A couple of days later (it can be up to 15 days), they will process a settlement increase for €120 which will raise your available balance by €120. Simultaneously, they will process a settlement decrease where they will remove funds from your card to cover the actual amount of fuel dispensed for example €45. In the period between the Normal approval and the settlement decrease your account will appear to have been debited by €120, but it has not.

Only when the Settlement decrease goes through has money actually left your account.

 

[concentrik]

Never had this problem at an ATM but I used my a Caxton FX card a while ago at an automated fuel pump at Geneva airport for CHF56 (€45).

When I got home, I found that €120 had been deducted from the card. I phoned Caxton & they very politely informed that this was standard procedure and that once the payment had been processed the balance would be refunded to my card, but this might take up to 15 days. In fact it took just 3 days but all the same, if I had not had at lest €120 on the card, I could not have bought fuel.

Details from the Caxton website:

Hotels, car hire, bicycle hire and deposits of all kinds
Don’t use your Caxton card for the security card swipe when you check into a hotel or hire a car. Use any other card for this and only use your Caxton card to settle the bill. This is because of something called ‘shadowed funds’. When a card is swiped you might not know that a ‘shadow’ is put on the card. Your Caxton card holds a prepaid balance and the shadow will stop you from getting to your travel cash. A shadow can last for up to 30 days. Use any other card for the security swipe and your Caxton card when the payment transaction is required.

Automated petrol stations on the continent (not just France) usually take a security deposit of €120 (Normal approval) when you first swipe your card. No money actually leaves your account at this point, but your available balance is reduced by €120.

A couple of days later (it can be up to 15 days), they will process a settlement increase for €120 which will raise your available balance by €120. Simultaneously, they will process a settlement decrease where they will remove funds from your card to cover the actual amount of fuel dispensed for example €45. In the period between the Normal approval and the settlement decrease your account will appear to have been debited by €120, but it has not.

Only when the Settlement decrease goes through has money actually left your account.

I understand all this about shadowing and security deposits - the merchant (or petrolpump) doesn't know how much the eventual charge will be. Not the case for me I'm afraid as the merchant (Credit Mutuel) knew exactly what the charge would be- the anount I asked for at the ATM, the amount the ATM dispensed. Transaction closed. So I see no reason to hold/shadow/reserve/pend funds for any reason. It's not as if I could somehow get MORE cash without beginning an entirely new transaction..... one for the FSA I think.

 

[maxi77]

Never had this problem at an ATM but I used my a Caxton FX card a while ago at an automated fuel pump at Geneva airport for CHF56 (€45).

When I got home, I found that €120 had been deducted from the card. I phoned Caxton & they very politely informed that this was standard procedure and that once the payment had been processed the balance would be refunded to my card, but this might take up to 15 days. In fact it took just 3 days but all the same, if I had not had at lest €120 on the card, I could not have bought fuel.

Details from the Caxton website:

Hotels, car hire, bicycle hire and deposits of all kinds
Don’t use your Caxton card for the security card swipe when you check into a hotel or hire a car. Use any other card for this and only use your Caxton card to settle the bill. This is because of something called ‘shadowed funds’. When a card is swiped you might not know that a ‘shadow’ is put on the card. Your Caxton card holds a prepaid balance and the shadow will stop you from getting to your travel cash. A shadow can last for up to 30 days. Use any other card for the security swipe and your Caxton card when the payment transaction is required.

Automated petrol stations on the continent (not just France) usually take a security deposit of €120 (Normal approval) when you first swipe your card. No money actually leaves your account at this point, but your available balance is reduced by €120.

A couple of days later (it can be up to 15 days), they will process a settlement increase for €120 which will raise your available balance by €120. Simultaneously, they will process a settlement decrease where they will remove funds from your card to cover the actual amount of fuel dispensed for example €45. In the period between the Normal approval and the settlement decrease your account will appear to have been debited by €120, but it has not.

Only when the Settlement decrease goes through has money actually left your account.

This ring fencing of part of your available balance has been in existance since the cards started. It is one of the reasons business travellers use charge cards without limits such as Amex and Diners. I have known people who were using Visa or Mastercard for travel because of Air Miles etc finding their card being refused part way through a trip because of the security charges against their card.

When using a currency card to pay for fuel on auto machines you do have to watch your balance because of the security charge. Also the French payment system can result in currency cards being refused some times. Mind you it is a lot better now, I can remember when your chances of a UK credit card being accepted in France was about 50%

 

[concentrik]

Just to round this off, here's the full reply from Caxton - if you use one it may be worth knowing....

Thank you for your email, I am sorry to hear that you have recently experienced difficulty using your Caxton FX card.

Payment card transactions consist of three parts. Whenever a transaction is processed with your card, a message is sent to the processor at the time the card is swiped. At this point, provided enough funds are available and the card is active and valid, the sum will be placed on hold in preparation for the merchant to settle the transaction with their bank. When the merchant processes their banking a settlement credit takes the balance back up and a settlement debit moves the funds from your card to the merchant’s bank account. This process is not confined to prepaid cards and applies to all card types.

In these particular instances, the bank in question, Credit Mutuel, has omitted a step in the process. They have settled your transactions without processing a settlement credit and subsequently the sum has been kept on hold despite the fact that the money has been received by the bank. Although your ledger balance only goes down by one amount, the deduction to available funds is duplicated by this action. This is an error on the bank’s part and one that appears to be ongoing as they have actually misprocessed your subsequent transactions in the exact same way. Authorizations alter your available balance and not the actual sum held against your account so the funds are still held on your account, but remain unavailable for purchases or withdrawals until the authorisation is released. If a merchant does not release or settle an authorization of their own accord, the hold will automatically expire after 15 days and the funds will become available once more.

In terms of other merchants, this is an error on the part of Credit Mutuel, and is highly unusual. The common reason for funds to be placed on hold is deliberately, as payment security, and it is this that we would advise you to avoid. It is standard practice for many hotels to place an authorization on a card when it is handed over as security. This is not specific to our card and will happen whether you hand over a prepaid, credit or debit card. Card issuers have absolutely no control over the timing or value of these authorisations and in some cases they may well be the value of your entire bill, even if you have already paid it. This process also affects other similar types of transaction such as car or bike hire. We realise that blocking large sums of money on a designated travel spending card will cause issues for most people, so we recommend within our travel tips that for any type of security hold you use a standard bank credit card but settle the bill with your Caxton card to ensure that you don’t tie up your funds but are still getting the best rate.

Unfortunately, we cannot automatically detect that a bank has misprocessed a transaction in this way, but in most cases if an error such as this has occurs we are able to adjust your account manually, to make the funds available. It does appear that this bank is having particular issues with their systems, so if you do have access to an alternative bank I would advise using another machine. We have raised the issue with our processor so that they can contact the bank. Hopefully this issue will be corrected as soon as possible by Credit Mutuel, as it will also be affecting cards issued by other providers.

I am sorry that this lapse in Credit Mutuel's processes has inconvenienced you, and we are doing what we can to alert them to the fact that something is amiss. In the interim, all we can do is manually remove any further unnecessary authorizations at your request so I would recommend using another bank, or using your card at point of sale where possible. If you do need to use Credit Mutuel and the issue occurs again, contact us via phone or email and we will ensure the hold is removed as soon as possible. Hopefully this information makes the situation clearer and I hope that we can resolve this to your satisfaction, but if you do continue to feel unhappy with our response, the next step is to refer your complaint to the issuing bank, Raphaels, the relevant information is attached. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can assist with anything further.

 

[little_roundtop]

What a great response! A good and complete explanation of the cause of the problem, what action they have taken and good advice on what you can do to help yourself. They're even following up the French bank to try and stop it happening to others. What more could you ask for?

 

[concentrik]

What a great response! A good and complete explanation of the cause of the problem, what action they have taken and good advice on what you can do to help yourself. They're even following up the French bank to try and stop it happening to others. What more could you ask for?

This was received a few hours ago after a very lame initial response from a junior...... this, from the boss, it was the kind of thing I needed at the outset and, yes, I appreciate the detail and candour.

I think the problem is confined to Credit Mutuel so will avoid them in future!