MSE news: Going abroad? Avoid the blocked card holiday nightmare

moneypooh

Nationwide have an area in their message section online and one of the subjects to choose from is travel notice. I have used this to inform them of my travel dates this year for both flex and credit card accounts.
So they do have a way of informing them online - worth a few minutes maybe?

bucklnwr

I attempted to book three different journeys on the Italian train network this week, firstly using my Nationwide card. Although this is not the world's easiest website to navigate and use, I eventually managed to book the first leg of the journey. When I came to book the second leg, my payment was denied, despite having entered and ultimately checked my passwords etc. I tried again the next day and once more on the third day, still with the same result. Contacted Nationwide, who told me that the card had a stop notice on it. They would cancel this and I should then be able to use the card once more. No joy with the Italian bank website though. Same result.
OK, try another card - this time a NatWest card. Managed to book the tickets. Try to book the third journey, though and once again the card was blocked. Contact NatWest who indicated that there was no blockage on the card by them. Still unable to make a booking though by either of these two cards. So, it seems that foreign banks can block your cards without your card provider being aware of it.

HellcatF6F

I went to Singapore and Australia back in April and emailed Nationwide and Capital One who both confirmed they had noted the dates and countries I was visiting. I had to go into a Barclays' branch and complete a form to do the same for my debit card, which was a pain, but the four week trip went off without incident. Maybe it's better to put it in writing, but card companies often don't seem to know their left hand from their right, so maybe I was just lucky.

Monkeeboy

I notified all of my suppliers last year before travelling to the USA. TC said they didnt need to know and none of the cards were declined last year. This year I didnt tell them before going to Barcelona and my card was declined on the first day when trying to pay for my accommodation. I didnt have any other means to pay. My wife tried her TC card which is the secondary card on my account and this was luckily accepted. When I got back TC fraud line had left a message on my home phone. I called them and answered all of their questions but they couldnt explain why my card was declined yet they had accepted my wifes on the same account!

Anyway as they now charge 2.5% commission on transactions I will not be using it anymore. Looks like I will be applying for a Post Office card.

Incidentally I had purchased nearly £600 of Euros using the same card at a TC branch near home two days before flying. Surely they might have guessed I was going to a European country at some stage!

nedsram_2

I've not had problems abroad, but I have had several problems with my Egg Money Mastercard in this country. (I always use Nationwide cards abroad because of the lower or zero loading fee. I have never had any issues with Nationwide.) The most recent was when a final payment for a holiday cottage triggered a "security alert" the day after I had gone on holiday for a week. I had told them to collect the final payment automatically. Given that I had used the same card to pay the deposit a few weeks earlier, it shows how brainless their system is - entirely automated. As is the automated call you get at home (useful when on holiday!) which can easily be dismissed as a nuisance call. On a previous occasion an attempt to purchase a TV over the internet was also declined. And this was after I had been passed to Mastercard SecureCode and successfully entered the required password. Although I successfully used another card, this confused the seller's system sufficiently for them to charge me for the TV, then lose all trace of the order. I was eventually forced to get a chargeback. Incidentally the second card was a Barclaycard. Within a minute I had received a phone call from a real person asking me to confirm that the transaction was genuine. :T

If you use an Egg Money card, it seems that any sum over some value (I would guess around £300, less for an internet transaction) causes the card to be blocked automatically. I previously found that any attempt to pay more than £100 for an internet purchase would be automatically declined, although the card was not blocked. So it appears that they may have have at least two thresholds which are mindlessly applied regardless of the transaction involved. Clearly no human intervention takes place.

I once asked for my credit limit to be increased. No chance they said unless your circumstances change. When I replied to the effect that in that case there would be no point in asking again they promptly increased it as requested. :eek:

Nigel_Scott

I have a current account with LTSB and they send me a text if my card has been used overseas.

We are going to Australia in October and have booked lots of hotels etc online. We have received texts on most of those transactions.

When we were in Ireland last month, it became a standing joke for my wife and me. Every time I used my card, up would pop the text, and we'd joke "Oh look, someone's used my card"

On the other hand my wife, who is with First Direct, had her card refused in shops (FD could see no reason for the refusal when we rang!!) but she COULD get cash from cashpoints.

Neither of us contacted our bank before travelling

buxtonrabbitgreen

I have never contacted my bank to say I am going abroad. I have used debit and credit cards in Scandanavia, singapore, Australia, and Germany. Never had one blocked or declined.
I always take most of the money I think I will need in cash and take my cards in case I run out. So my spending on them is small. HSBC by the way.

oli-fur-ball

I too have had bad experiences with my Nationwide cards. I've always made the effort of informing them when I'm going abroad - sometimes they say they've noted it on my a/c, other times they'll say they only need it for the debit card and not credit card (does that make sense to you???). Last time was when I was in Orlando with family and on the spur of the moment, decided to splash out in the Apple store with about £900 worth purchases. Card got declined, even though I'd notified them I would be in the States. I ended up having to rely on another family member bailing me out and repaying them afterwards, all very embarrassing in the shop. Interestingly, the family member used a non-Nationwide credit card to pay for me, and his card issuer was far more sensible, asking the store to ring them for authorisation so that they could speak to the card holder there and then to verify his identity. Why can't other card companies be as sensible and avoid putting their customers in difficult/embarrassing situations by blocking their card without giving them the chance to confirm it is genuine?

I contacted Nationwide, racking up a hefty international call and eventually got the card unblocked. On my return to UK, I phoned to complain but it was just brushed aside and said it's their anti-fraud policy which detects unusual spending pattern and totally disregarding the fact that holidaymakers will have a different spending pattern when they are overseas than when they are at home, no recognition of the inconvenience it has caused me (ended up with no use of card for over 24 hrs). The whole point of me holding their credit card was the fact they didn't charge a conversion fee, something they made a big marketing issue about. But I ended up paying more for my purchase as I had to bear the cost of my family member's charge from his card issuer who did. Grr!

I do wonder if perhaps I'm being caught out because I don't tend to use this card at home. I normally choose to use other cards because of loyalty points/other perks, but save the Nationwide one for holidays and the few online non-£ transactions because they sell themselves as one of the few who don't load a fee. If anyone works for Nationwide is brave enough to speak out, I would be very interested to hear if I'm being penalised for not using it regularly enough, so that any holiday transaction will always stick out like a sore thumb to the system. It's getting to the point where I have to take other cards with me as I can't 100% rely on Nationwide, with the additional cost those cards will cost me. Telling them in advance don't seem to work - when the system blocks your card, no human appears to look at your notes to see if you've informed them you'll be in that part of the world at that time and tying all the info together!

Bob_the_Saver

Amex blocked a transaction of mine. It was a British Airways Amex card being used for booking a £100 flight with an airline that has their own branded Amex cards. It seems it was suspicious!!!!!!!!!!!! If so, what wouldn't be?

nedsram_2

oli-fur-ball wrote: »

I too have had bad experiences with my Nationwide cards. I've always made the effort of informing them when I'm going abroad - sometimes they say they've noted it on my a/c, other times they'll say they only need it for the debit card and not credit card (does that make sense to you???). Last time was when I was in Orlando with family and on the spur of the moment, decided to splash out in the Apple store with about £900 worth purchases. Card got declined, even though I'd notified them I would be in the States. I ended up having to rely on another family member bailing me out and repaying them afterwards, all very embarrassing in the shop. Interestingly, the family member used a non-Nationwide credit card to pay for me, and his card issuer was far more sensible, asking the store to ring them for authorisation so that they could speak to the card holder there and then to verify his identity. Why can't other card companies be as sensible and avoid putting their customers in difficult/embarrassing situations by blocking their card without giving them the chance to confirm it is genuine?

I contacted Nationwide, racking up a hefty international call and eventually got the card unblocked. On my return to UK, I phoned to complain but it was just brushed aside and said it's their anti-fraud policy which detects unusual spending pattern and totally disregarding the fact that holidaymakers will have a different spending pattern when they are overseas than when they are at home, no recognition of the inconvenience it has caused me (ended up with no use of card for over 24 hrs). The whole point of me holding their credit card was the fact they didn't charge a conversion fee, something they made a big marketing issue about. But I ended up paying more for my purchase as I had to bear the cost of my family member's charge from his card issuer who did. Grr!

I do wonder if perhaps I'm being caught out because I don't tend to use this card at home. I normally choose to use other cards because of loyalty points/other perks, but save the Nationwide one for holidays and the few online non-£ transactions because they sell themselves as one of the few who don't load a fee. If anyone works for Nationwide is brave enough to speak out, I would be very interested to hear if I'm being penalised for not using it regularly enough, so that any holiday transaction will always stick out like a sore thumb to the system. It's getting to the point where I have to take other cards with me as I can't 100% rely on Nationwide, with the additional cost those cards will cost me. Telling them in advance don't seem to work - when the system blocks your card, no human appears to look at your notes to see if you've informed them you'll be in that part of the world at that time and tying all the info together!

When I last told Nationwide that I would be using the card overseas, they told me not to bother, as they don't record such information.

I should add that I hardly ever use my Gold Visa card in this country, and I have never had any issue using it abroad. It's possible that they have a ceiling on the amount you can spend, you breached that ceiling, and they tried and failed to contact you about it, then blocked the card as a result.

I've taken to giving these people my mobile number so that they have no excuse that "we phoned your home number and got no reply".