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

fudgecat

I use my Egg Monay card for every single purchase I make. The only time the automated detaction fraud system was activated was when I purchased air line tickets for my daughter`s honeymoon to Malaysia. Fair enough - I never go anywhere and don`t fly, so I was impressed that they would query such an unusual transaction on my card. Far from inconvenienced, I felt protected - but that may just be me!

djm1972

Thanks, fudgecat;

May I ask - do you carry a balance on the card?

I spend around £1000 per month, paid off in full by direct debit (it will be around £2000 this month after buying season tickets for me and my friend) - the stereotypical "bad customer" as far as credit card companies are concerned, so i'm wondering if they are intentionally trying to inconvenience me into closing my account.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I don't use my Egg card as I'm paying an LOB deal on it. However, my Barclay/Goldfish seems to be a bit sensitive on security. Once a month, I pay $2.99 to an American company for internet file storage. Every month, Barclay do the automated call bit. A bit irritating mainly because it's so long winded. I understand that fraudsters often test a card by making a small purchase abroad so this is probably what triggers it. I just wish the system could remember which companies are OK for which accounts but I suppose that would be a bit much.

TMPilot

I think I'm having the same problem with my Natwest student mastercard.

I usually pay things like my phone bill then pay back before the end of the month, but last week I withdrew £250 (I'm aware of the charges etc, just a temporary solution to a problem).
I then did the same a few days later, but put the wrong amount in and expectedly got the "Insufficient funds" kick in the b***s. So I tried again with the intended amount and got "Card declined by card issuer", a new kind of kick.
No phone call as of yet, so I guess I should call them and tell them it was me, not a romanian pick-pocket or whoever they think I am.

Rhys.

CopperPlate_2

I used to have problems with Egg Money not being 'authorised' in stores or having online transactions declined. They constantly called my home number despite the fact I told them I worked during the day - the automated calls went unanswered so the online transactions just got declined. Eventually they amended it so my mobile was called, but the details it gives you to try and work out if you made the purchase or not was sometimes a bit odd - so then you had to speak to a human which took ages.

The final straw was when someone scammed my card and 'bought' about £500 worth of play on an online betting site (on two separate days!) and the system didn't trigger any calls to me! That was despite the fact I'd never bought anything like that in my history with Egg and the fact that it was an online gambling site anyway you'd have thought would've raised a query, but no. Their fraud detection system is useless - inconvenienced me when I didn't need it to, and then when I actually needed it to protect me, it failed totally. They way Egg dealt with the fraud was excellent, but that's not the point!

zkw29

I find the Egg Money fraud detection a bit of a nuisance - they flag up things that are regular transactions for me. I've had it flag up my typical weekly shop in Tesco but no problems with a couple of unusually large transactions. Although I was impressed at how quickly the last one reached me. I was in the shop at the till and my mobile rang to confirm the transaction I was in the process of paying for.

djm1972

zkw29 wrote: »

I find the Egg Money fraud detection a bit of a nuisance - they flag up things that are regular transactions for me. I've had it flag up my typical weekly shop in Tesco but no problems with a couple of unusually large transactions. Although I was impressed at how quickly the last one reached me. I was in the shop at the till and my mobile rang to confirm the transaction I was in the process of paying for.

Exactly. I've just left a secure message basically saying "That's it", but i'm assuming now that they don't want my business anyway.

thor

I have had and used my EGG Money cards for years with no problems until the beginning of this year. I paid for my car insurance a day before renewal and thought nothing of it. A few days later I used my card to buy something from the local high street shops and found that my card was refusing the transaction. The cashier had to call EGG to get it sorted but was put on hold for over 40 minutes before I decided to pay cash instead. After I emailed EGG, I was told that the insurance purchase had put the block on my card and I needed to contact them to unblock it. This meant that for a few days I was driving around in a car that may have or may have not been insured.
This has happened many times since and I always have to email them to fix the card(calling them is hopeless as you are put in a queue that is over half an hour long). I am almost afraid to use the card now and it is only the 1% cashback that is stopping me from dumping it.

Paul_Herring

I paid for my car insurance a day before renewal [...]
This meant that for a few days I was driving around in a car that may have or may have not been insured.

Um - off-topic, but why leave it so late to pay for renewal?

NickX

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Um - off-topic, but why leave it so late to pay for renewal?

Well I am of the opinion that you shouldn't pay before you need to. Why give someone your hard earned funds when you don't have to ?

I'm not saying you should pay late, but I always renew car insurance the day before the expiry date and pay by Credit Card if possible.

Personally I think you would be insured, you have made payment to your knowledge. If the payment process has failed it is down to the insurance company to tell you that there is a problem and request an alternative form of payment.