Can't stop money being taken from account

I can't believe what's happening - there's been a "pending payment" in my bank since Monday for £204 so my balance & available balance are different by that amount. I'm pretty good at keeping on top of what goes in & out & didn't know what this pending payment was for, so I rang my bank & they told me it was for Virgin Mobile well I have nothing to do with Virgin mobile & haven't bought anything from them. Then with a bit of deeper digging my bank told me the postcode on the pending transaction was different to mine so it looks suspicious.
Best of all (NOT) they can't stop it until it's been pending for 5 working days!! I can't believe this! so if it's still pending tommorrow they can cancel it. If not Virgin Mobile get the money for something that's nothing to do with me. Then I have to go through the whole claim proccess with the bank to get my money back.
"Get on the phone to Virgin Mobile "I hear you say, but oh yes I've done that, been kept on hold forever, can't get in touch with their fraud people & waiting since yesterday for them to ring me back - so about as helpful as a brick wall.
I'm hoping that tommorrow the payment is still "pending"then my bank can actually cancel it as the 5 days will be up!! that I'm hoping perhaps Virgin have realised it's not right & that is why it's not been actually taken yet as my bank said it's strange to be pending for so long without actually taking it - but as it stands sitting in mid air & not available to me, they can take it if they want - how mad is that!
I'm not a happy bunny!

Oh No! Because it's been pending in your account since Monday, I'd say it will be available to spend in your account tomorrow. Usually it only pends for a few days if they were going to take the money.

I hope you find out why it was pending in the first place, it's naughty of them. I also can't believe the bank aren't being very helpful

Fingers crossed x

I have just been through the saga of bank fraud, only every penny was taken out of my account, including my overdraft. I collectively spent over two hours on the phone to Barclays (on hold most of the time) getting it sorted which cost me a bloody fortune. The whole process took about fortnight and I got my money back eventually but what a pain.

OMG I'd be jumping up and down in rage with that bank!!!!! You don't want to get involved with their fraud department either, it's absolutely useless!!! I know that coz something happened with my husband via his bank card though (debit card) and he had forms galore to fill in, they have changed all his business accounts and pins and cards and it has been ongoing now for about 4 months with still nothing sorted, he hasn't actually got the money put BACK into his account that was fraudulently taken out! I hope and pray that it's still pending tomorrow so they can just cancel it or whatever, but HOW mad is that, that they cannot just stop it NOW!!! I'd be flaming livid with them!!!! In fact, thinking about it more, I think I'd tell them to close my account and NOW, so that they can't take it anyway, and then I'd tell them I will take my business elsewhere!!! Let THEM lose that money not YOU! Morons!!!

How awful for you Labradork - must have been difficult especally if you have bills to pay! I just can't believe with this that as it hasn't actually left the account they can't just cancel it instead of waiting.
It's quite scarey that people can access your account with all these passwords etc..although mine is a small amount I still need it.

I think I'd probably lose the money if I did that as although it's not been taken by Virgin yet - it's not available to me, so the money is in mid air - it's so stupid. I've actually just banked some cash this morning to cover some direct debits for next week as if it's not back in I would go overdrawn & they would probably hit me with charges then.
Just hoping for tommorrow and I have to ring them back as they won't automatically cancel it - they need me to remind them! & yes it's put me in a bad mood!
Your poor hub - what a nightmare!

The more that goes on the more I think we should go back to keeping our money under our mattresses, it is our money hard earned and yes we have to pay our bills but when something like this comes up you would think it was the banks bl**dy money the way they behave.

Who was it that bailed them out of the problem they got themselves into ? Us the tax payer I believe and we had no say in it. Can you tell they make me angry.

What a nighmare

Personally I'd get back on to the bank and say

"show me where I have authorised this payment... I have not authorised this and you are NOT going to take it out of my account. If you don't sort this out immediately I will be changing banks as well as complaining to the Financial Ombudsman Service"

What a nightmare, I can't believe they won't cancel it here and now, why should you have to worry until tomorrow about this???

I was a victim of some horrible bank fraud, i stepped off the plane from the uk to australia to find my bank account had been tottally emptied. It still took them a week to refund the money, even when i pointed out that it was unlikely I would order 5,000 footballs to be delivered to india when I'd never set foot in the bloody country!

Technically, I could have been turned away at customs from entering OZ as I didnt have any money to live on, thankfully they took pity on me but it was a close run thing!

Which Bank is this? Name and Shame!
I`d be down to the nearest branch shouting at people if I were in your shoes TBH.