Amazon charged £1 against my account - bank calls
Just had a call from my bank asking me to verify five transactions made today. Four of them were recognised but the fifth was for £1 and was logged at Amazon. I had to say that I did not recognise that charge and as a consequence my bank has flagged it as fraudulent, cancelled my card and reissued me with a new one.
Curious to what that £1 charge could be and why Amazon? I know there are transactions that are “testers” just to see if the number is “live” before a fraudster goes to town on the card but this doesn’t fit that bill. Or does it? Anyone else seen this or had it happen to them?
29 replies
Seller_0Amk0hnQkPWMH
Just before Amazon make a disbursement to your bank account they do a test “charge” of £1. They do not actually take £1 out of your account, it’s just a test.
However, now that your card has been cancelled, you will have to re-enter the details of the new card in your Amazon account, which may well trigger the verification process
Seller_2BrPSydGy6oyq
Amazon make a test charge to your registered card to verify it’s valid, normally before they disburse funds to your bank account, but they don’t actually take the £1.
If that’s what happened, then you may see issues on your account and ability to disburse funds.
Seller_x1xMSBwZsJrTE
I just noticed this on my credit card login the other day. Amazon seem to ping my card on an almost daily basis. Not quite sure why because as far as I recall that card was used only for my sponsored ads, however since about 6 months ago I opted to have ad fees deducted from my Amazon account.
Seller_H1HfrG7xLIKV6
I always thought Amazon take the £1 by card on every disbursement then add it on to the disbursement amount.
Seller_AhQJGf0tCpM25
Hi folks,
Many thanks for your replies. Well, I’ve been selling on Amazon for well over 10 years and have never come across this before and why my bank - same bank for 40 years - should suddenly get themselves in a tiz about something that has obviously been going on for years beats me.
Looking forward to going through the verification process again. Not.
Seller_uK2aGVnqbtliE
This happened to a friend of mine when he signed up as a buyer for free shipping (which, by the way was no help to him at all as none of the things he wanted were free postage!)
Luckily he had enough funds but he was really puzzled and slightly worried in case any more was withdrawn - seemingly without his permission.
Amazon should tell people that’s what’s going to happen. Maybe it’s in the small print but it shouldn’t be. My friend is pretty on the ball and also computer savvy but it perplexed him, and it was only through reading the blogs that I could tell him what had happened - it certainly wasn’t obvious.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Amazon takes 1£ as a reserve to test the validity of your card before a disbursement. They also reserve 1€ for every additional Amazon marketplace, where you sell. So if you sell on all 5 Amazon Europe marketplaces, then you will find -1£, -1€, -1€, -1€, -1€ separate transactions in pending status on your credit card statement.
If you flagged the transactions as unauthorised and blocked the card, it might cause very serious problems to your account, including a suspension. I would suggest you to update the credit card asap and hope that they will not take any action.
