Egg's automated fraud detection system... are other cards as bad?

djm1972

I use my Egg Money card for almost every purchase I possibly can, but recently they seem to have turned up the sensitivity of their automated fraud detection system, which basically puts a temporary hold on your account and then phones you up and asks you to confirm a number of recent transactions before re-activating your card.

It is now happening so often that I am considering leaving Egg as a result, but before I do so, I'm wondering if this is more of a policy direction by Mastercard, and similar protocols are being used by other card issuers?

Can anyone else who uses Egg Money regularly confirm whether they have noticed an increase in this happening, and does anyone who uses a credit card other than Egg Money for several transactions a day have to go through the same kind of procedure?

I'm worried that at some point i'm not going to be in a position to respond to the automated system, and then be seriously inconvenienced when I am not able to use my card at some crucial moment....

Thanks!

nzseries1

Weird, this year I've booked last minute holidays to weird places, ordered strange things off the internet, made a pile of ebay transactions after never having used it before, and never have I had a "fraud" call.

My credit cards are M&S and Ulster Bank Gold (both Mastercard).

ziknik

I have a Citi Card (Citi own Egg card too)

Same thing has happened to me once

It wasn’t a huge inconvenience as I was shopping online and had another card I could use.

hostman

I have an Egg card and its happened once this year. But I don't often use it.

No1

I closed my Egg card because of this, it got ridiculous, especially as they will not call a mobile to confirm.

djm1972

No1 wrote: »

I closed my Egg card because of this, it got ridiculous, especially as they will not call a mobile to confirm.

They don't seem to have a problem calling my mobile with it - quite the opposite in fact! The trouble is, my mobile doesn't allow keypad entry during an incoming call (other than answer / hang-up) when the keypad is locked, which it normally is when it's just sat in my pocket - so I can't respond to the automated system and have to phone back and go through the rigmarole with a human.

All of this is notwithstanding the ridicule of a system that phones you up and then asks you for security details, a complete about face from the "don't disclose your details to anybody you don't trust" advice!!

Paul_Herring

I've had Egg ring me up a couple of times questioning transactions, usually when booking holidays on the card, (and once when it was, indeed, fraudulent.)

I've never found it to be particularly onerous, but they are the only CC company I've regularly used in the recent past to have done it (Amex and Halifax are the others I've used but haven't.)

lisyloo

It can be a bit of a pain, but hasn't happened to me on a regular basis.

I did have something delayed from Amazon because of it.
I think I was away and didn't get the emails and it was something I wanted for a birthday, so a bit of a pain.
BUT I guess it's a trade-off of whether you want to suffer from fraud.
In some ways it's a good thing that they are being pro-active.

djm1972

Thanks - just been inconvenienced yet again as the person I spoke to in the security department earlier today apparently didn't clear the security flag so a bog standard low value transaction at a local shop - something I do day in day out has just been "referred" (not declined, but requesting telephone authorisation) however the cashier didn't know what to do, so I just paid cash!

gizmo111

Use the egg visa card a lot and have never hada problem, only once when I purchased some carpets at £1K, and spent around £750 in the same day on other transanctions, they let them go through and rang me. Wasn't a problem, and none were small amounts.

djm1972

Funny thing is how arbitrary it seems to be; just 2 days a go I spent almost £1000 on the card on season tickets for myself and a friend for football, not a dickie bird; then £6 at a railway station triggers it.