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More detail: one of the amounts in May was £170.68. The amount yesterday was £24.51.

Also: if the amount requested had been my exact balance, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't have succeeded. I have successfully paid them twice before from this account.

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their requesting $385, but the amounts in your account are £170.68, £24.51...obviously not enough. So this might fall within your banks overdraft facility and how they deal with negative balances.

Yeah that would make sense. I don't have any arranged overdraft but my balance can go negative by a small amount in which case it will be displayed. The most likely explanation does seem to be that they are just displaying my balance in a weird way - but still, very odd to show a transaction for a different amount than was requested. And having spoken to them, they see exactly the same thing I do in whatever systems they can access, so it's not just how it's represented to the customer.

ok in that case if i had to put my finger on it you just discovered a bug in your bank's system, not the debit card network...you spoke with a front-end operator and they dont know past whats available in their screens

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