Called by Abbey credit card fraud department

babylonfree

Yesterday I booked a hotel room for Vegas on the net and thought everything was fine.

Today I got a call from Abbey fraud department on my mobile, I was a bit suspect so I said I would call them back as they were asking me for my security details and I didn't want to hand them out, as I didn't know for sure who they actually were.

I called them back and spoke to someone who quite frankly didn't have a clue what they were doing. They said that the fraud department was closed today (even though they had just called me). They did finally confirm the hotel transaction had been blocked though.

My question is, when I call them back tomorrow and confirm the transaction is not fraud. Will they then process that transaction or will I have to book the hotel again?

Any help is appreciated as I really don't trust the Abbey call centre.

normanmark

You will have to put the transaction through again. What would of happened is you would have got through to the front line customer services, who wouldn't deal with the fraud issues (Being that they called you they could be only doing outbound calls only).

Irrespective of that, your card will be currently blocked. What you'll need to do is call them back tomorrow, confirm the transaction is one you're making. They'll unblock the card & then you will have to make the booking with the hotel again.

louiser123

oooh what a palava!! i thought credit cards were supposed to be versatile !! better than a frudulent transaction though i guess, but a bit of a pian to say the least.

HamiltonL

You'll need to speak to the Authorisations department (01908) 238 031 and they can verify it for you so you can use your card. There is a 24/7 fraud team who can deal with it as well, based in Iberia, so I assume the agent called the wrong Fraud department as that one is only open six days a week.

patrick0

HamiltonL -- thanks so much for that useful post, I'm saving that number in my mobile.

I recently tried to book a flight with Air Asia X - this is a huge budget airline based in Singapore/Malaysia (part owned by Richard Branson). The transaction was immediately rejected even though I'd entered the Mastercard Securecode password.

I called Abbey's call centre several times - they were totally useless. I got bounced between India and the UK. This was very frustrating as I was trying to book a special flight fare that was quickly disappearing. In the end I made the payment via Barclaycard, it was rejected, I called their call centre and they immediately knew what the issue was and removed the block and I was able to make the payment.

Today I logged into the Abbey website and I can see the payment was authorised then reversed several times, so it certainly looks like a fraud prevention automatic block. I called their call centre again but they say there is nothing wrong with my account. They claimed there was no such thing as a block. Basically the call centre don't have a clue at all.

I called the number you provided above and they were very helpful and knew straight away what the problem was and said to give them a call when I next want to make the payment.

I'm going to write a letter of complaint to Abbey, so hopefully they'll do something about their totally clueless customer service numbers.

Broadback

Come on Peeps, surely you would not be happy if someone fraudulently used your CC. I would much prefer banks to be over cautious than under. I once received a similar call from my CC company, it was a false alarm but I was happy. In this case I had purchased from B&Q in one town, then less than an hour later another purchase from B&Q in another town, this brought up a warning flag on their software. I've been in banks in the past when a clerk has queried a withdrawal, and the customer has gone ballistic. Would they rather the money was paid out with negligence!

wary

Broadback wrote: »

Come on Peeps, surely you would not be happy if someone fraudulently used your CC. I would much prefer banks to be over cautious than under. I once received a similar call from my CC company, it was a false alarm but I was happy.

I guess there's a fine balance between preventing fraud and inconveniencing the customer. Yes, I'd rather not have a fraudulent transaction on my CC, but it will be the bank who is liable for the cost, not me.

mikey72

babylonfree wrote: »

Today I got a call from Abbey fraud department on my mobile, I was a bit suspect so I said I would call them back as they were asking me for my security details and I didn't want to hand them out, as I didn't know for sure who they actually were.

Any help is appreciated as I really don't trust the Abbey call centre.

HamiltonL wrote: »

You'll need to speak to the Authorisations department (01908) 238 031 and they can verify it for you so you can use your card. There is a 24/7 fraud team who can deal with it as well, based in Iberia, so I assume the agent called the wrong Fraud department as that one is only open six days a week.

patrick0 wrote: »

HamiltonL -- thanks so much for that useful post, I'm saving that number in my mobile.

I've posted this before so no offense to anybody posting here, I'm of the same opinion that I won't give any information out if I didn't start the call, but I do find it ironic that phone numbers off an open forum are posted and accepted. Again no offense, but check them all out first.

Jemma-T

If you're going to do anything on the card that's important to you, costs a lot of money or you might consider strange (to your bank) phone them BEFORE you do it. Always did it and never had a problem. My relative was building a house and the cheque failed to clear quickly for part of the roof and the driver refused to take the stuff off the wagon. I phoned MBNA and said I was just about to use the card and they said no problem. Amount £5,800. I think I got 1% cash back too which I kept a secret

patrick0

broadback - I wasn't complaining about it being rejected, I was complaining that the call centre had no knowledge about blocked transactions and instead claimed (in multiple calls) that it must be a glitch and to retry.

I've since spoken Abbey & Santander Cards (who were very helpful). They will be working to ensure the call centre people are aware of blocked transactions and know to forward such calls to the appropriate department. They're also looking at tweaking their system rules so Air Asia X transactions are not automatically bounced.

They also advised me to call them before going on holiday to have my card flagged with the countries I'll be travelling in.

Cliquot

I book a lot of hotels and flights regularly so sometimes payment processing with my Abbey credit card account could be a real pain. Even after explaining on several occasions my situation they keep calling to confirm my purchases and sometimes cancel them so I have to rebook. After several incidents I switched to Barclays last year and have had no problems at all.