Bank refused payment for credit card on train?

[Compound_1000]

I was traveling to London not too long ago, and I boarded the wrong train - got the timings mixed up. I was charged for an extra ticket, put my card and pin in, and got issued the ticket. After my journey, I received a notification from my bank that the payment had been declined, and it has not been taken from my card since. My card has worked since for other things and I have not cancelled it nor tampered with it in any way. What will happen next? I don't want to pay any further fines, or for this to escalate.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Did the card machine that was used say Approved?

 

[Compound_1000]

Did the card machine that was used say Approved?

I think so - I got the ticket and was left alone after that

 

[AlterEgo]

Nothing will happen.

 

[Bungle965]

Probably went through as an offline transaction, train companies accept the hit on some of them being denined.

Certainly the volume isn't what it was under Avantix (Old Mobile Ticket Issuing System) years ago!

 

[Compound_1000]

Nothing will happen.

How are you sure about that?

 

[BongoStar]

You had a valid ticket in possession for travel. The payment not going through is a separate issue.

If the ToC wanted, they could pursue you for using (an apparently) fraudulent means to obtain the ticket, but they can't pursue you for travelling without a valid ticket.

 

[AlterEgo]

The TOC can't do anything here. They authorised the transaction offline and it was declined. That is all there is to it.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Its weird. Same thing happened to me on a bus yesterday. Nothing wrong with my card, as I used it afterwards. But when I tried to use it on a bus later it wasn't accepted, so must have been blacklisted, and the original payment wasn't taken from my card.
Nothing will happen to you, as they don't know who you are. Unless they try and retake the payment?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Sep 2024 ==

If the ToC wanted, they could pursue you for using (an apparently) fraudulent means to obtain the ticket, but they can't pursue you for travelling without a valid ticket.

Its not fraudulent.

 

[island]

If the ToC wanted, they could pursue you for using (an apparently) fraudulent means to obtain the ticket

This definitely will not happen.

 

[Merseysider]

If the ToC wanted, they could pursue you for using (an apparently) fraudulent means to obtain the ticket...

this is completely incorrect and we would ask that any advice given is accurate.

Fraud must involve dishonesty, which was not present in the OP's case.

 

[zero]

At least on buses, they may try to take the payment again at a later time.

Around 2019 or so, I bought a ticket on a bus with my card and they charged me 10p at the time of tapping.

Later that day I froze that card as I was not going to use it for a while, but I forgot or didn't realise that they hadn't taken the full payment. The next day the bus operator did try to take the rest of the payment and it declined.

A month later they tried again and as I had unfrozen the card by that time, the fare payment was taken.

I believe TfL also reattempts to take payments several times if they are declined initially.

I don't think buying a ticket on board a train would happen in the same way though.

 

[BongoStar]

this is completely incorrect and we would ask that any advice given is accurate.

Fraud must involve dishonesty, which was not present in the OP's case.

I am speaking from experience. GWR train in February 2017. The horrible experience is still fresh in my mind.

Which is why I put (an apparently) in brackets. It's how they can choose to see it. I agree that they need to prove intent and in the case of OP, that wasn't there, but nothing prevents them from trying to pursue - and spectacularly fail.

For those wondering what happened:

I bought a ticket from TVM. For some reason it declined the card, so I tried 3 times and was successful on the third attempt. On checking my statement, I saw three charges. Went to the station and they fobbed me off, along the lines that I must have bought the ticket three times and am trying to make a false claim. Card was AMEX and I raised a dispute. Got my tw9 refunds from AMEX. following week, when I had a buy a ticket, the card declined and having experience of last time, I decided to go to the counter where I was told that the card was blacklisted and am trying to commit fraud and if I don't stop what I am doing, they will report me to the authorities.

Now whether this was a lone staff acting outside their remit or something with GWR, I don't know and at this point I don't care, but it did leave a bad impression on me. I could still use the card everywhere else.

Point being nothing prevents them from accusing OP - which I wanted to hihighlight am not saying it will happen or has to happen.

 

[Vexed]

Now whether this was a lone staff acting outside their remit or something with GWR, I don't know and at this point I don't care, but it did leave a bad impression on me. I could still use the card everywhere else.

It was probably a manual / semi automated process that they do for all chargebacks. It is poor from a consumer's perspective but they do it to discourage chargebacks. Nothing a replacement card won't solve though.

A bit off track but I manged to freeze a card machine in Starbucks at St Pancras the other day... It got stuck saying "Please wait" and the staff couldn't cancel it or anything so they had to put it through on a different till. Luckily the transaction never went through. For all I know the machine is still waiting!

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I decided to go to the counter where I was told that the card was blacklisted and am trying to commit fraud

The thing is, it’s fairly unlikely that railway counter staff are legally trained and know the definition of ‘fraud’. At the counter , they used the term in a throwaway sense: but if the railway were to take the unusual step of prosecuting for fraud then it seems to me that before they committed to the hassle and expense for the railway of a prosecution then someone with a grasp of the law would check that they had enough of a case not to be laughed out of court.

 

[Watershed]

if the railway were to take the unusual step of prosecuting for fraud then it seems to me that before they committed to the hassle and expense for the railway of a prosecution then someone with a grasp of the law would check that they had enough of a case not to be laughed out of court.

Unfortunately the train companies do not seem to employ many such people, or as a minimum they do not use them to sense-check prosecutions before they are launched. I'm afraid there is no guarantee that a train company wouldn't launch an unmeritorious prosecution - the fact is they can and do, on a daily basis. We have seen many such cases on the forum here.

The only thing that really goes in passengers' favour here is that train companies like simple prosecutions that can be processed in bulk. Fraud prosecutions are not at all simple and thus they don't like doing them - most such cases get passed over the BTP, where (together with the CPS) there is a much higher likelihood of a proper level of scrutiny being applied to the case file before any prosecution is brought.