Warning - New Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit Cards

bicycler

If you have received a new Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit Card in the post please do not activate these cards because: -

1/ You will not be able to use them on many online sites to buy things for Christmas or to make payments because many sites do not recognise this card type.

2/ The process of registering is broken. The Clydesdale Bank SecureCode system and the staff at SecureCode headquarters could not see that my card had already registered and tried to tell me that I had not registered it. The SecureCode department then stated that some crucial information was also missing about the card (expiry date and security number) and again tried to blame me for this. This raises major security concerns about the registration process and the safety of your financial information for which the Clydesdale Bank has no answers.

3/ Please be aware that, although the Clydesdale Bank tell you in their covering letter that you have 8 weeks to register the new card, they may try to force you to register and use the new card by prematurely withdrawing the ability to use the old Maestro Card the new card is designed to replace. This is what they did to me.

4/ Please also note that once you have registered the new card you cannot use your old Maestro card and you will therefore end up with an effectively, badly broken replacement.

5/ Clydesdale Bank SecureCode department Customer service is appalling on this issue. If they perform as they did with me they will try to claim: - a/ That it is your fault b/ That the department dealing with it is the local branch. All the branches apparently do is suggest you reregister at the site you wanted to buy your Christmas presents from. This is totally useless information if it happens to be your first visit to that site. c/ That they will get back to you. They don't.

6/ They will then tell you that they can do nothing for you - as they did to me. Needless to say a complaint is winging its way to Lynn Peacock - their CEO. I recommend that everyone who is affected affected do this to show them the scale of this issue at this very important time of year.


Please be warned that you may end up having a very bad Xmas because your wife, mother, children and grandchildren etc may not get their christmas presents if you register the new Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit card on the assumption that you will be able to use it successfully online.

Bosie

bicycler wrote: »

If you have received a new Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit Card in the post please do not activate these cards because: -

1/ You will not be able to use them on many online sites to buy things for Christmas or to make payments because many sites do not recognise this card type.

2/ The process of registering is broken. The Clydesdale Bank SecureCode system and the staff at SecureCode headquarters could not see that my card had already registered and tried to tell me that I had not registered it. The SecureCode department then stated that some crucial information was also missing about the card (expiry date and security number) and again tried to blame me for this. This raises major security concerns about the registration process and the safety of your financial information for which the Clydesdale Bank has no answers.

3/ Please be aware that, although the Clydesdale Bank tell you in their covering letter that you have 8 weeks to register the new card, they may try to force you to register and use the new card by prematurely withdrawing the ability to use the old Maestro Card the new card is designed to replace. This is what they did to me.

4/ Please also note that once you have registered the new card you cannot use your old Maestro card and you will therefore end up with an effectively, badly broken replacement.

5/ Clydesdale Bank SecureCode department Customer service is appalling on this issue. If they perform as they did with me they will try to claim: - a/ That it is your fault b/ That the department dealing with it is the local branch. All the branches apparently do is suggest you reregister at the site you wanted to buy your Christmas presents from. This is totally useless information if it happens to be your first visit to that site. c/ That they will get back to you. They don't.

6/ They will then tell you that they can do nothing for you - as they did to me. Needless to say a complaint is winging its way to Lynn Peacock - their CEO. I recommend that everyone who is affected affected do this to show them the scale of this issue at this very important time of year.


Please be warned that you may end up having a very bad Xmas because your wife, mother, children and grandchildren etc may not get their christmas presents if you register the new Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit card on the assumption that you will be able to use it successfully online.

I'm with Yorkshire Bank, same as Clydesdale and whenever I've phoned in for a replacement card, well once I lost it and this time the signature strip is damaged. They tell me that the card is cancelled immediately, and I've then had to go into the branch with proof to get money out.

So I am worried if they do issue me with this new Mastercard debit, with all these problems. I do thankfully have an account with the Co-op so can do a fast payment transfer into that account.
Hope it's resolved soon:j

bicycler

Bosie wrote: »

I'm with Yorkshire Bank, same as Clydesdale and whenever I've phoned in for a replacement card, well once I lost it and this time the signature strip is damaged. They tell me that the card is cancelled immediately, and I've then had to go into the branch with proof to get money out.

So I am worried if they do issue me with this new Mastercard debit, with all these problems. I do thankfully have an account with the Co-op so can do a fast payment transfer into that account.
Hope it's resolved soon:j

I would suggest that you use the COOP account for the time being. The Clydesdale Bank is doing its best to blame everyone else for its own actions and they have no answers to the problems they are causing customers yet.

Its not just a matter of buying presents. It appears that people are not able to pay their bills either. Neither is good just before Christmas. I hope they fix this soon and that other people do not get caught up in this issue.

stclair

Its possibly because retailer have failed to update there BIN databases.

The bank can only do some much and they cant force retailers to update the databases. They can only feedback the information to mastercard.

Travelsaver

I called my banker today and they are aware that there are a lot of issues with these cards at the moment as the technology is so new. So contrary to the OPs issues, parts of the bank do seem to recognise that there are problems. I can't say that I have had any issues with secure code though, but perhaps I am lucky.

Firstly whilst many bulletins have gone out to merchants, it seems many have not reprogrammed their systems or informed their staff that these new cards exist. The other key issue is that in the UK only Bank of Ireland and Clydesdale Yorkshire Banks have decided to take the Mastercard route. The card is however being rolled out globally so even though the UK take-up rate is low, merchants are going to see more of these cards whether they like them or not. A quick google search of merchant bulletins will prove that some activity is happening.

Theoretically the new card is fantastic as there are loads of places especially overseas which won't take Maestro cards which has been the key advantage Visa (Debit) has had, however it seems merchants have not yet updated their systems as they had to do with Visa Debit cards a few years back. This will therefore cause us early adopters much pain over the next couple of months until they do.

The good news is that I tested my card in the post office to deposit cash today and had no issue. I have also managed to successfully get cash out at the pub so word is slowly getting out. The big issues in my eyes however are as follows:

1. It is now no long possible to make a payment to a credit card company using the new debit card. As payments over a particular amount always go via BACS rather than FPS (£750 limit with CB/YB), I tend to prefer making debit card payments to my credit card especially as I tend to move money around at the last possible moment. Many people in my situation will sadly experience this issue and will be forced to use internet/telephone banking to make credit card payments.

2. Most airlines (full service and low cost) charge fees for payments made with credit cards. The new debit Mastercards are being treated as credit cards and will therefore incur the full transaction fees levied by British Airways, bmi, Virgin, Easyjet, Ryanair etc. UK issued Visa debit cards are treated as debit cards so I am sure it is just a matter of the merchants to programme in the appropriate number range into their systems to accept the Mastercards as debit Mastercards in future, although this should have been pushed before their introduction. No doubt other companies have similar policies so will also need to upgrade their systems.

Personally I don't have a problem with Clydesdale going down the debit card route, although I am surprised they in conjunction with Mastercard did not do more to try and increase their acceptability within this country before their introduction, especially since Mastercard is more common than Visa these days in respect to credit cards. I am also surprised that CB/YB did not try to introduce the contactless "Pay Pass" technology at the same time so I suspect we will be issued with another round of new debit cards in the not too distant future.

It should be noted that Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank's parent bank, National Australia Bank has actively gone down the Visa debit path in Australia last year so I am very surprised to see them go down the Mastercard route over here, especially since both RBS/Natwest and HSBC both dumped Mastercard for debit cards very recently.

j0annepsi

Ryanair should never have launched this scheme without ensuring their merchant system could tell the difference between pre-paid mastercard and mastercard credit!

Just spent €14 on a return flight to London when I should have only paid €4 because Ryanair doesn't recognised Neteller Net+ cards as pre-paid!

Travelsaver

j0annepsi wrote: »

Ryanair should never have launched this scheme without ensuring their merchant system could tell the difference between pre-paid mastercard and mastercard credit!

Just spent €14 on a return flight to London when I should have only paid €4 because Ryanair doesn't recognised Neteller Net+ cards as pre-paid!

Pre-paid cards however are different again to Mastercard Debit cards.

Personally I don't know Ryanair's rules for pre-paid cards although they should not be confused with the product we are discussing in this thread.

456789

Travelsaver wrote: »

It should be noted that Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank's parent bank, National Australia Bank has actively gone down the Visa debit path in Australia last year so I am very surprised to see them go down the Mastercard route over here, especially since both RBS/Natwest and HSBC both dumped Mastercard for debit cards very recently.

I assume mastercard offered them a better deal - considering all the banks switching to visa they must have to offer some very good deals to keep some market share

Toe-Jam

j0annepsi wrote: »

Ryanair should never have launched this scheme without ensuring their merchant system could tell the difference between pre-paid mastercard and mastercard credit!

Just spent €14 on a return flight to London when I should have only paid €4 because Ryanair doesn't recognised Neteller Net+ cards as pre-paid!

My neteller + card works fine on ryanair, no charges.

mcnabt2009

I want to get one of these cards anyway. Just look at this site for picture of it... So Nice.. :T

debitcardmayhem

Good Luck if you are expecting help I received a call from the "Customer Engagement Team" who told me that all complaints are dealt with in FIFO basis and it could be up to 8 Weeks :mad: before I get anything sensible back. Today I received a letter from YB saying that "A new planned borrowing facility that's right for you" ... wonderful now they are reducing my overdraft facility because I have not used it - fat chance I cannot use my new debit card for 80% of the transactions I used to access with my old maestro card.
I used to be with their Private Banking section with a named Partner whose telephone number and email address were available from the YB town Doncaster in Scotland, now I have a nameless helpdesk person , a "Customer Engagement Team" email address which because of security will not acknowledge via emails but in fairness will speak on the phone after 3 days having been prompted by phone several times, and you can write to their Yorkshire town near Glasgow. You gets what you pay for I suppose, I should have paid to stay with PB, mind you what I have experienced is not bad for £10 per month.