Transport for London fined me … after it declined my payment

I tried to pay a congestion charge to Transport for London (TfL), but payment was declined twice. My bank, Nationwide, told me TfL had not collected the funds but refused to confirm this in writing. I sent screenshots of the pending transactions to TfL, which refused to accept them, and said I must pay the fine when it arrives.
RB, Bournemouth, Dorset

This is a dispiritingly familiar story. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve reported the breathtaking intransigence of TfL. In 2019 it told me I had prompted it to improve its system, but still drivers are penalised for its own incompetence.

TfL, in a letter to you, claimed pending payments have to be authorised by the bank and do not become official until that happens. Nonsense. Pending payments have already been authorised, and it’s up to the merchant, ie, TfL’s agent Capita, to collect them. If it fails to do so after seven days, they are re-credited to the account holder.

Nationwide says: “Unfortunately, only TFL can answer why it didn’t collect the payments and instead declined them. We have been supporting our customer by providing information on the pending payments. However, we accept our service fell below our usual high standards and are offering compensation.”

TfL changed its tune when I got in touch. It says: “The service was not to the standard we expect, and we have reminded our contractor of the importance of following the processes in place to best support customers. There is no record on our system of any charges, or penalties, the customer has to pay.”

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