Unauthorized POS Debit

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Question:

We have a POS debit coming through one of our accounts that was not authorized by the bank. It was declined NSF, but I am being told that we can not return a POS no matter what. In this case, the merchant forced the POS knowing that it was declined, so why should the bank have to pay for it? Where can I find the rules that govern this kind of transaction?

Answer:

Because you described a merchant's override of a declined authorization request, it appears the transaction was processed as a signature based debit over either the MasterCard or Visa network. In the Visa or MasterCard Operations Manual instructions you should find how to proceed if a merchant force posts after receiving a decline message.

First published on BankersOnline.com 2/18/08