Are laser card transactions now debited immediately from bank accounts

I noticed last week that after paying for some shopping on Friday afternoon, by Friday evening a debit transaction was showing up on our online banking statement (BOI) I have been keeping an eye on it and it seems to be the case with all our laser transactions, I just bought something online and it showed up on the account within minutes. It doesn't immediately show where the transaction took place but looks like this:

22APR LASER TX 95.00

but in a few days time it will show the name of the company as normal.

I am not worried about anything, more curious as I thought transactions did not go into the system until the credit cards had been batched off by the retailer. We did however have an issue at work this week with a customer complaining we had debited money from her account according to her statement - we had reversed the transaction immediately as it was done in error and had copies of the transaction to prove the reversal was done within 2 minutes of the incorrect charge, I am wondering if maybe she is seeing the debit but not the credit back.

Yea same thing happened to me, might be worth a call to the bank..I also have a laser card with bank of ireland

Debit card transactions are always processed online and only by the issuing bank so they should always shop up immediately. Even when they don't, the available balance on the account will be reduced immediately and the transaction details will appear later.

BOI have new process in place where transactions show on the same day but details of where may not be available. I think its great as it gives you an actual balance rather than trying to remember how much is left!

I thought that was the whole idea of a Debit card anyway, that it would come off your balance straight away and if you didn't have the money in the account, it would be declined - in theory.

Suits me for it to be debited straight away.

I use a Visa debit card from Halifax. The available balance changes instantly.But the details will show when the merchant process's their transactions.

RentDayBlues said:

BOI have new process in place where transactions show on the same day but details of where may not be available. I think its great as it gives you an actual balance rather than trying to remember how much is left!

Click to expand...

Ah right, that explains it then. I am cautious anyway and have a spread sheet for our expenditure which I update each time we spend but it is a good idea all the same to have the real balance showing on the account.

Smashbox said:

I thought that was the whole idea of a Debit card anyway, that it would come off your balance straight away and if you didn't have the money in the account, it would be declined - in theory.

Click to expand...

I am not sure if that was always the case, though it may be now. A girl I used to work with in a shop would make a 1c purchase and get up to €100 cash back the day before payday when there was no money in her account and it never seemed to get declined!

colm said:

I use a Visa debit card from Halifax. The available balance changes instantly.But the details will show when the merchant process's their transactions.

Click to expand...

I think that's because most retailers handle visa debit transactions as credit card transactions. Laser transactions are handled separately which is why the transaction details appear much faster.

Re. BOI the laser transactions will debit from your account straight away (just like a credit card) however if the shop makes an error & debits you the wrong amount ie. 200 euro instead of 20 euro it can take up to 3 days for the refund to go back into your account!!!