how long can banks wait to debit my account

[lbquestions]

I'm looking for some advice on how long banks in the UK are allowed to take before debitting for a purchase made overseas on an acccount.

My fiance made a purchase from in-store on her card almost a year ago in South Africa and the money has not yet been taken off the account.

We are immigrating to Australia in the near future and want to close our UK bank accounts.

So I guess I need to know whether we should leave the money in this account and wait for this payment to go off, or has the amount been written off by the bank allowing us to close the account.

[Paule]

Re: how long can banks wait to debit my account

I must congratulate you on your attention to detail on checking your accounts.
I wouldnt notice something from last month, let alone a year.

I would hazard a guess that if if hasnt been taken in a year, it wont be taken now.

It will be the traders account that will request the payment though, and not the UK bank not releasing it (unless they believe it to be fraud, in which you would have heard).

Personally, I would close the account without any worries, because if they cant take the payment efficiently (witin a couple of weeks) then they cant request it over a year later.

PKea

[lbquestions]

Re: how long can banks wait to debit my account

Thanks for the reply PKea.

It was a reasonable purchase and after the first 6 weeks of it not coming off I forgot about it - until starting my immigration process and decided to look through some statements and saw it still had not come off

I just hope that once we close this account we are not liable or get black listed etc

We'll more than likely leave the account open until we immigrate so maybe I'll just leave it for a few more months then.

[scoobydoo]

Re: how long can banks wait to debit my account

I agree it is more the traders problem for not taking the money - if they try and the account was closed I doubt if the bank would even contact you. It would be up to the trader to try and trace you and ask you for the monies.