Blocking Payments to a Merchant?

Recently I used Hertz car rental in the UK. I knew they were going to fine me because by mistake I drove down a one-way street for 100 metres but they never gave me the opportunity to appeal it. So rather than deal with them I wanted my bank to block any future transactions from them so then they would have to deal with me............makes for a better conversation if they don't have your money already!

I rang my bank and asked them to block any future transactions from the company which they confirmed was now in place, however the payment still came out. I rang my bank again and they agreed they should have blocked the merchant so they refunded the amount back into my account. One month later the money was taken out of my account again and I received a letter from my bank to say that "the merchant has declined our dispute request".

Am I correct in saying that if the bank had put the block on the merchant in the first place, as I had requested, then the money would never have been taken out in the and there would have been no need for the bank to raise a dispute request? In other words Hertz would have had to deal directly with me to get their money?

It appears to me that the bank made a mistake by not putting the block on but of course they don't want to lose out so they raise a dispute request and then acted as judge and jury when the merchant sent them some information and took the money back out of my account.

I doubt that you are correct.

If you were, the whole basis of car renting would fall apart.

People would run up fines, damage cars, and the car rental firm could do nothing about it.

So hopefully, Hertz can pass the fine on to you. You can then appeal it to the UK police and get it back from them.

Brendan

If you lose your card your bank will ensure it is blocked for all transactions.

you have pre authorised a payment and changed your mind?

Why would hertz be able to debate the validity of the fine?

Also, you drive down a one way street. Maybe there was an issue with signs or whatever but that’s nothing to do with Hertz, it’s up to you to debate that, appeal it or whatever. Hertz can’t do that on your behalf.

Fair points, however Hertz are a bit muddled in their terms as they do say once they have all of your information (they have all of mine) they will send it onto the relevant authorities for them to issue the fine (this happened with a colleague of mine) however for mine they went ahead and paid it without giving me the chance to appeal. Can you even appeal a fine after is has been paid?

Leesider32 said:

Recently I used Hertz car rental in the UK. I knew they were going to fine me because by mistake I drove down a one-way street for 100 metres but they never gave me the opportunity to appeal it.

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It's not Hertz fining you but rather because of your actions Hertz received a fine which I believe you agreed to pay when you signed the contract handed over your payment details and rented the car
And you've admitted that you made the mistake of driving down a one way street the wrong way so what were you actually going to appeal??

As regards the bank, yes you can stop a payment going through or do a chargeback but if the vendor or service provider appeals it and give a good enough reason why it should be paid, well then the bank has no choice but to pay the vendor

Leesider32 said:

Can you even appeal a fine after is has been paid?

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Why not?

T McGibney said:

Why not?

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I would have thought that once the fine has been paid that you have in effect agreed that you were in the wrong and the fine was justified in the first place.

Leesider32 said:

I would have thought that once the fine has been paid that you have in effect agreed that you were in the wrong and the fine was justified in the first place.

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Hardly. If you're mounting an appeal against a tax assessment for instance, a precondition of doing so is that you must first pay the tax. It's to prevent people using the appeals system as a means of facilitating delayed payment.

You simply cannot go and ask your bank to block payments where a fraud has not occured and expect them to do so. You signed a contract and Hertz are entitled to defend your request and if they can provide proof of services/products supplied, then under the Credit Card provider rules, the payment will be allowed.

"I don't want to pay for it" is not a valid reason.