Erroneous debit from bank account

Lmg80 · 22 May 2020 at 21:22

Just a heads up; very bizarrely saw a debit for £1 on my account Westminster Parkin Fines London.
Given I live in a different county / not driven my car since lock down, seemed rather odd. A fine of £1 seems out of place too.
I suspect the local council also would not have a payment account called this rather it would be some pooled account.
The amount was debited in the early hours of the morning.
Card has been cancelled for now

Lmg80 · 22 May 2020 at 22:10

moon man said:
yeh sounds like a probe with a small amount ,wise to cancel card

That's my suspicion too.

Cannot be too careful / defo worth checking your statements

Lmg80 · 22 May 2020 at 22:11

dirtychinchilla said:
£1 this time. £1,000,000 next time.

Only in Monopoly money

Lmg80 · 22 May 2020 at 22:13

NoobCannon said:
Cool story. 5 stars Would read again

Sorry chap, it was more an FYI if anyone else had seen anything similar. By all means it serves little or no purpose for many, you can have your 1 minute back

Lmg80 · 23 May 2020 at 19:51

el_dazza said:
Happens with every type of card when you pay at pump. £1 is basically a pre-authorisation amount then the full amount leaves your bank about 2 days later.

Prob why it states max £99.

Lmg80 · 26 May 2020 at 19:55

diamount said:
Did you ever use Easyjet with that card? They claimed only a 2000 or so card details were compromised but who knows if that's true as they sat on that information for quite a while.

No buddy, I'm at a loss. The only possibility may be linked to my Steam account being compromised.
I got a similar we have disabled your account / password reset request on eBay when they noticed suspicion activity.
Both of which were a good while back.

I did purchase something recently in https://store.x-plane.org using my card, but then again I'm sure there would have been others affected? With that said, I got an email directly after purchase requesting I proved who I was i.e. with a passport or something that I refused and they refunded me because I failed to authenticate.
Just cannot be too careful these days / it's prudent to monitor your account on an active basis. Definitely a learning experience for me

Lmg80 · 27 May 2020 at 18:40

eviled said:
How old is your card?

I had a car rented in Naples on a 1 month old credit card that I hadn’t even taken off the letter it came stuck to get (I used it infrequently)
Card company returned the money but refused to believe my story about it having never left the house, I later read about ”account updater” services that automatically share new card details with certain retailers

2 years chap