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Hmm..thanks for the heads-up. I used it on Friday afternoon and still don't see a present or pending charge on my bank account. How long do transactions usually take to appear?
If you insert your card (so pay with the magstripe) it doesn't appear for a few days (up to maybe a week) as they don't authorise the transaction. I'm not sure about contactless.
I've never heard of the OP's situation - for me the barrier raises and the light goes green at the same time, and neither happens if the transaction fails - are they suggesting the OP maybe "tailgated"?
Is it perhaps more likely that the OP fell foul of the fact that the card isn't authorised, and for some reason their bank refused to pay the transaction?
If you insert your card (so pay with the magstripe) it doesn't appear for a few days (up to maybe a week) as they don't authorise the transaction. I'm not sure about contactless.
I've never heard of the OP's situation - for me the barrier raises and the light goes green at the same time, and neither happens if the transaction fails - are they suggesting the OP maybe "tailgated"?
Is it perhaps more likely that the OP fell foul of the fact that the card isn't authorised, and for some reason their bank refused to pay the transaction?
It shouldn't be that long - usually 48 hours maximum. The only thing that would slow it down is if the merchant has been taking payments off line and hasn't presented them - but that won't be the case here.
But a successful contactless transaction with a large provider may well be on faster payments so goes through almost immediately (I think the Faster Payments time is something like 2 hours maximum).
To the OP - I think that one should be appealed - if the payment is declined then it should be clear and the barrier shouldn't be opening. There is an appeals process on the M6 toll page and you have 21 days from date of journey, though if it didn't arrive until late on as they had to obtain your details from DVLA then I'd challenge that as well.
But a successful contactless transaction with a large provider may well be on faster payments so goes through almost immediately (I think the Faster Payments time is something like 2 hours maximum).
I'm sorry but this is misinformed. Card payments are all processed through the same systems; Faster Payments is a method of executing a "push" bank transfer and is not applicable here.
The actual settlement of a card transaction takes between about 1 and 5 days. As you say it does tend towards about 2 days.
A contactless transaction does not go through almost immediately. That's just the bank reserving the money by way of an authorisation, which is supposed to be done for a contactless transaction (but not a magstripe one) but I'm not clear if M6 Toll have an exception to that of some kind, it looks like they may do.
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It makes no difference whatsoever to whether you used contactless, Chip & PIN or magstripe. All card transactions are settled using the same systems. Typically they are towards the shorter end these days, but it depends on when the merchant claims it.
It can appear as pending on my app in hours - in this scenario we are wanting to know if the machine has acknowledged the payment and not done what it did to me
I've refused to use the M6 Toll since the day I was travelling north (via M5/M6) and there had been a very nasty southbound accident on the M6 right at the M5 junction;
it had happened some time previous, as all the emergency services were on site and the lorry involved had the cab covered by a tarpaulin, the M6 was totally blocked.
The queue on the southbound M6 extended to within 500 yards of where the M6 Toll starts and as I passed this junction heading north, the M6 southbound matrix signs were still showing "M6 Toll clear" (with no notification whatsoever that the M6 was closed), shameless.
I'm sorry but this is misinformed. Card payments are all processed through the same systems; Faster Payments is a method of executing a "push" bank transfer and is not applicable here.
The actual settlement of a card transaction takes between about 1 and 5 days. As you say it does tend towards about 2 days.
A contactless transaction does not go through almost immediately. That's just the bank reserving the money by way of an authorisation, which is supposed to be done for a contactless transaction (but not a magstripe one) but I'm not clear if M6 Toll have an exception to that of some kind, it looks like they may do.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
It makes no difference whatsoever to whether you used contactless, Chip & PIN or magstripe. All card transactions are settled using the same systems. Typically they are towards the shorter end these days, but it depends on when the merchant claims it.
No, not correct. All payment cards in the same payment network (i.e. Visa, MasterCard or AmEx) process using the same systems, it makes no difference if it's a credit or debit card.
The processing of a card transaction (any card transaction of any kind, including Apple/Google Pay) occurs in two steps.
Typically the first step is an authorisation. This is simply asking your bank if the funds are available, and placing a "mark" on those funds so you can't otherwise spend them. How this is shown depends on your bank. If it's one of the more modern ones like Monzo they're typically shown as actual transactions but if you click into them you see a note saying Pending, and Monzo users with an overdraft will note that they aren't charged overdraft fees for these even if it looks like one caused them to overdraw. Older banks tend to show them in a different way, e.g. by a difference between your "balance" and "available balance" when you view it on a cash machine or similar.
Authorisations are not always carried out if using chip & PIN or the magstripe; whether they are or not is down to a combination of the issuing bank and general banking policy. There's some sort of flag in the chip/on the magstripe indicating the maximum transaction value ("floor limit") above which an authorisation is mandatory for that card. For some debit cards it's zero, but for others it's higher. I was on the Conwy Valley at the weekend (a notable signal blackspot) and some cards were being accepted and others not - for one, I saw a C&P transaction succeed in the Ffestiniog Tunnel where there's definitely no signal!
For contactless, authorisation is mandatory in most cases, as an offset to the reduced security of not having a PIN/signature. The main exception is "transit mode", i.e. using tap-in/tap-out on the Tube or other similar systems. However, it is possible that to speed things up the M6 Toll has another exception, I'm not quite sure. However, the M6 Toll definitely doesn't do authorisations before opening the barrier if you insert rather than tap your card and it processes from the magstripe. (It may do them later, I'd have to try it and see).
With all that over with, the second step is to actually claim the funds. This goes through the same systems for all card transactions by that merchant provider regardless of if it's a credit or a debit card and regardless of whether you used contactless, C&P, the magstripe or typed it in online. It can vary how long it takes and it's quicker than it was, but it's typically somewhere between 2 and 5 working days, tending towards 2 these days. This is initiated by the merchant claiming the funds, so sometimes if there's an issue with their systems it can take longer.
If the second step does not occur, i.e. the merchant does not claim the funds, the authorisation "drops off" after a few weeks as it is assumed the transaction failed. This shows on the likes of Monzo as a refund, but on banks that don't show authorisations as transactions it'll simply mean your "available balance" and "balance" line up again.
Anyway, with all that explained, what I was suggesting was that what may have happened to the OP was that they inserted the card (so no authorisation was carried out) but their bank later refused to pay it, which they can do - they are only obligated to settle the transaction if an authorisation was carried out for it. Most merchants would not be able to do anything about that (hence why most merchants would choose to do authorisations even if the bank didn't mandate it) but things involving cars give them the option to look up the registration number and pursue it as happened to the OP. And this is why I think this is what probably happened.
I've refused to use the M6 Toll since the day I was travelling north (via M5/M6) and there had been a very nasty southbound accident on the M6 right at the M5 junction;
it had happened some time previous, as all the emergency services were on site and the lorry involved had the cab covered by a tarpaulin, the M6 was totally blocked.
The queue on the southbound M6 extended to within 500 yards of where the M6 Toll starts and as I passed this junction heading north, the M6 southbound matrix signs were still showing "M6 Toll clear" (with no notification whatsoever that the M6 was closed), shameless.
Those signs are a different colour from the others (blue, if I recall) and have a prominent sign on them saying "M6 Toll Status" or something like that. They are not intended to show anything else and this is clear. The normal ones are black and would show issues with the M6. Thus I can't see a problem with this. The M6 Toll has other junctions so the information is still useful.
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