Problems with New RBS/Natwest/Ulsterbank Visa Debit Cards

fozmcfc

Just got my Natwest Visa Debit yesterday to replace my maestro card, was looking forward to having a visa debit, not so sure now.

I normally pay my Tesco and Virgin credit cards by my debit card. Anyone had an experience of paying these two cards with the new Visa Debit?

I normally use my debit card online mainly to purchase, as I do very little shopping offline nowadays. Two retailers online I used are Play and HMV, so hoping they will be ok.

Thankfully I do have a 0% on purchases credit card for another 8 months, so hopefully by then everything will be sorted.

Other than that I do normally pay most things by cash offline.

barbiedoll

Had problems with my Natwest visa debit card in Morrisons last Saturday, although my husband's card works fine :mad:

Checkout girl said her new card was trouble too and that the card machine can't read the new smaller chip(??) However, when we tried again, she told me to push the card in the slot and to hold it there and sure enough, the transaction went through. Which isn't terribly helpful for an online transaction, I know! Neither card has ever worked at a petrol pay-at-the-pump machine but they have both been fine at cashpoints.

Olipro

stclair wrote: »

The problem does lie with the retailers im regret to say. The bank communicated the change to everyone starting back in late 2008 stating that changes needed to be made for them to accept the new cards.

The bank are re communicating this fact to some retailers that they are aware of, however the bank can not force anyone to update there systems to take the new cards.

If someone wants to compile an proper spreadsheet of retailers that are not excepting the cards. I can pass the information to the department whom i've been speaking to regarding this issue. As the bank wont know which retailers are affected unless customers tell them.

As for retailers logging the new BINS as visa credit cards that also done to the retailers. The communication blatantly says the new BINS relate to visa debit cards. Ill get a copy of the actual communication and ill post it on here so you can see for yourselves what the communication actually says.

if only someone would communicate to RBS that they need to fix their backend so that you don't have to get a whole new card issued if the App Transaction Counter on the EMV chip is a wee bit ahead of what they last recorded.

ukbill

I posted above concerning the problem concerning RBS Visa Debit being not recognised by Thomas Cook on-line website.
Having since read through a lot of the posts on this and other threads concerning RBS Visa Debit - I've just been and checked my past bank statements. And YES - when I've used this Visa Debit card to get foreign currency - again at Thomas Cook - I see I got charged as if I was using a credit card.
So I really want this fixed - or I want a proper debit card from my bank. RBS tell me (the special "RBS Private Banking" service) that they do not see a problem. I told them of all the complaints on the MSE.com site and they still claim no knowledge. VISA state that it's not their problem and suggest you just go to your bank branch. And they don't want to help - even when I suggested I was prepared to close my account and go elsewhere.
SO - I'm going to try a letter to the RBS Chairmans office - sure - it will probably just reach some PR person - but maybe if lots of us do it - then action might follow.

ukbill

And a PS to the above - folk hitting similar NatWest problems - RBS and NatWest are effectively one and the same - so both banks are producing the same problem. Let's all write to Philip Hampton the RBS Chairman and see if we can get some action!!

bev309

fozmcfc wrote: »

Just got my Natwest Visa Debit yesterday to replace my maestro card, was looking forward to having a visa debit, not so sure now.

I normally pay my Tesco and Virgin credit cards by my debit card. Anyone had an experience of paying these two cards with the new Visa Debit?

I normally use my debit card online mainly to purchase, as I do very little shopping offline nowadays. Two retailers online I used are Play and HMV, so hoping they will be ok.

Thankfully I do have a 0% on purchases credit card for another 8 months, so hopefully by then everything will be sorted.

Other than that I do normally pay most things by cash offline.

Play & HMV are fine:T

stclair

ukbill wrote: »

I posted above concerning the problem concerning RBS Visa Debit being not recognised by Thomas Cook on-line website.
Having since read through a lot of the posts on this and other threads concerning RBS Visa Debit - I've just been and checked my past bank statements. And YES - when I've used this Visa Debit card to get foreign currency - again at Thomas Cook - I see I got charged as if I was using a credit card.
So I really want this fixed - or I want a proper debit card from my bank. RBS tell me (the special "RBS Private Banking" service) that they do not see a problem. I told them of all the complaints on the MSE.com site and they still claim no knowledge. VISA state that it's not their problem and suggest you just go to your bank branch. And they don't want to help - even when I suggested I was prepared to close my account and go elsewhere.
SO - I'm going to try a letter to the RBS Chairmans office - sure - it will probably just reach some PR person - but maybe if lots of us do it - then action might follow.

That charge is implemented by visa themself not the bank.

So you may want to write to visa with your concerns or close your account which ever is best for you.

Regarding non acceptance of the card altogether your better off writing too:

RBS Group Transactional Banking, UK Retail
1St Floor, House E
Gogarburn
PO Box 1000
Edinburgh
EN1 1HQ

stclair

This when I purchased my currency from the co op using a co op visa debit card.

05/08/2009 THE CO-OP TR 3AUG £746.27 £8.80 DR
05/08/2009 VISA CHARGE AUG 3 £14.92 £23.72 DR

The £14.92 is charged by visa them self not the bank :-)

ukbill

Yes – I’ve just had an Email response from RBS customer service telling me that this new charge was hidden away in the tiny small print of a notice they sent to all their customers in November 2009.
However – before this Visa Debit was FORCED upon us all by RBS – we did not have a problem.
So – why did RBS change things at all?
I guess banks have to pay for their banker bonuses and pensions somehow!

Thomas Cooks on-line Direct Holidays website DOES have “Visa Debit” as one of the options.
Unfortunately the prefix number of the Visa Debit cards issued by RBS doesn’t match what Thomas Cook expects as Visa Debit – so they reject it. I guess this is what is happening with other retailers.

The simple way of looking at this issue?
The old cards worked – the new ones don’t.
RBS changed it – so the fault lies completely with RBS.
Unfortunately this nationalised bank now believes it can do as it wishes – and the attitude of the RBS management is simply “accept it or go elsewhere” – they just don’t care.

Toe-Jam

stclair wrote: »

That charge is implemented by visa themself not the bank.

That is completely untrue. My Visa Debit card (Coventry) doesn't charge this fee, neither does HSBC as far as I know.

VISA CHARGE XX on the Co-Op statement means a charge FOR using you Visa not a charge BY Visa Europe.

If you look at Martins article on "Cards from Hell" you will see its a charge that the banks make on buying foreign currency.