What Is Selecta UK on My Bank Statement?
Selecta UK operates vending machines and coffee machines — the ones in office corridors, hospital waiting areas, train stations and hotel lobbies. The charge is a drink or a snack you bought from one of their machines.
The reason people search this rather than shrug it off: the amounts are small and the double charges are common. Customers regularly report paying twice for one item, or being charged when the machine dispensed nothing at all.
At a glance
- Company
- Selecta U.K. Limited
- What it does
- Vending and coffee machine operator
- Where
- Offices, hospitals, stations, hotels
- Charge size
- Usually £1 to £5
- Common problem
- Duplicate charges
- Also common
- Paid but nothing dispensed
Who they are
Selecta is one of Europe's largest self-service vending and coffee operators, running machines across the UK and Ireland. Its machines sit in places you pass through rather than shop at — workplaces, hospitals, universities, railway stations, leisure centres and hotels.
That is why the name is unfamiliar. You bought a coffee at work. The machine belongs to Selecta, so Selecta is what your bank records — not your employer, and not the building you were in.
Why there are two charges for one drink
This is the most reported problem with these machines, and it is worth knowing it is common rather than assuming your card is compromised.
Contactless retries. If the first tap appears to fail, people tap again. Sometimes the first attempt did go through and simply did not show on the machine, producing two charges for one item.
Declined on screen, taken from the account. Customers report the machine declining a contactless payment, paying by cash instead, and then finding the card payment on their statement anyway.
Pending authorisations. Small contactless payments can appear, disappear and reappear as they settle, which can look like duplicates when it is one transaction moving through.
Wait a few working days before concluding you were charged twice — genuine duplicates persist, settlement artefacts do not.
Paid and nothing came out
The other frequent complaint: the money goes, the product does not.
Selecta handles refunds centrally. Your employer, the hospital or the station cannot help, because the machine is not theirs.
To claim, you will need the machine's location and identifier, the date and time, and the amount. Machine ID numbers are usually printed on a sticker on the front of the machine, often near the payment reader. Photograph it while you are standing there — that detail is much harder to reconstruct later.
If Selecta will not refund you
Customers also report difficulty getting refunds resolved. If a direct claim goes nowhere, the card route is straightforward.
Chargeback covers debit and credit cards, usually within 120 days. "Paid for goods not received" is exactly what it is designed for, and a vending machine that took payment and dispensed nothing is a clean example.
Duplicate charges are also a standard chargeback category.
Section 75 will not usually apply, since it needs a credit card purchase of £100 or more.
Do not write off a small amount on principle if it happened more than once — repeated small failures at the same machine are worth reporting to the site owner too, because they are the ones who can get the machine fixed or removed.
Is it a scam?
No. Selecta U.K. Limited is a large, established vending operator and the descriptor is legitimate.
The complaints are about machine reliability and refund handling, not about the company being fraudulent.
If you have not used a vending machine
If nobody in your household bought anything from a machine, treat it as an unrecognised card payment rather than a vending query.
Small transactions are commonly used to test whether stolen card details still work before a larger attempt follows, so a £1.50 charge you cannot explain deserves the same response as a large one. Your bank must refund unauthorised payments by the end of the next working day, and your liability before you report is capped at £35.
- All four agencies: in one report: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion & Crediva
- Spot the errors: and old debts that quietly get applications declined
- It's a soft search: so checking never leaves a mark on your file
- See what lenders see: the same information banks pull when they assess you
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🛡️ Build your recovery plan
Tick what applies to you. The order below is deliberate: most of these organisations will ask for your Action Fraud reference number, so doing it in this sequence saves you making the same call twice.
Nothing ticked yet: the steps below are the ones that apply to everyone. Tick a box above to add the rest.
- 1
Report it to Action Fraud and get your crime reference number
Action Fraud: the national reporting centre for fraud
- Onlinereportfraud.police.uk
- Phone0300 123 2040
Do this second, and do it before you contact anyone else. Almost every organisation in this list (lenders, credit reference agencies, debt collectors) will ask for the crime reference number Action Fraud gives you, and without it you end up making the same call twice. It also creates the official record you'll rely on if you have to dispute anything later. Expect an update within 28 working days, though that's about the investigation, not about clearing your name; that part is on you and starts now.
Have ready: What happened and roughly when · Any account or reference numbers involved
- 2
Get all three credit reports and read every line
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
- Experian0800 013 8888
- Equifax0800 014 2955
- TransUnion0330 024 7574
All three, not one. Lenders report to different agencies, so a fraudulent account can sit on one file and be invisible on the others: checking a single report is the most common way people miss the second and third account. You're looking for accounts you didn't open, searches you didn't authorise, and addresses linked to your name that you've never lived at. That last one matters more than it sounds: a linked address you don't recognise is often how the fraud was set up in the first place.
Have ready: Your addresses for the last six years
- 3
Add a CIFAS protective registration
CIFAS: the UK fraud prevention service
- Onlinecifas.org.uk
- Phone0330 460 9601
This puts a warning flag against your name in the National Fraud Database, so member organisations run extra identity checks before granting credit in your name. It costs £30 and lasts two years. It does not affect your credit score, and it doesn't touch accounts you already hold, but it will make your own applications slower, which is the trade-off. If someone has your details, that's usually a trade worth making. Note that not every application is checked against the database, so treat it as a strong deterrent rather than a lock.
- 4
Check you're on the electoral register at the right address
Your local council
A quick one that's worth doing while you're here. The electoral roll is one of the main ways lenders confirm you live where you say you do, and being missing from it both weakens your own applications and makes it easier for someone to claim your identity elsewhere.
- 5
Escalate if you get nowhere
Financial Ombudsman Service, or the ICO
- Financial Ombudsman0800 023 4567
- ICOico.org.uk
If a bank refuses to refund you, or a lender won't remove an entry it has accepted is fraudulent, complain to the firm first and give it eight weeks. After that, or as soon as you get a final response, take it to the Financial Ombudsman. It's free and its decisions bind the firm. Where the argument is specifically about inaccurate data staying on your credit file, the Information Commissioner's Office can also look at it. Both routes cost you nothing.
- 6
Close the door behind you
You
Change passwords on your email account first, not your banking: email is the master key, because it's where password resets land. Turn on two-factor authentication wherever it's offered. If documents were lost or stolen, report the passport or driving licence to the issuing body so it can be flagged. And set a reminder to re-check your credit reports in three months: fraudulent applications sometimes surface long after the original breach.
Contact details and process reflect Action Fraud, CIFAS, the credit reference agencies and National Debtline guidance for England and Wales. Scotland reports fraud through Police Scotland on 101 rather than Action Fraud; the rest of the process is the same. General information, not legal advice: free, independent help is available from National Debtline, Citizens Advice and StepChange.
