Trying to prevent inevitable decline on purchase

gracie83

Whenever we try to do something unusual ie buy a holiday, buy an engagement ring etc our credit card, &more, always cancels the transaction and after a while we get a call telling us that someone has been using our card suspiciously. On Tuesday we will be using the card to pay for our new car. We just know that the transaction will be declined and we are already preparing for the inevitable embarrassment this will cause!

We gave &more a call to warn them about the purchase and told them at what time and date we will be buying the car, who the car dealer is, exactly how much the transaction will be. Their response - the transaction will be declined as the computer will automatically decline it due to the amount. They will put a note on our account with the fact that we have called to warn them for when it gets passed to a human in the fraud department or for when we call them pleading for the transaction to go through!

(cannot use cash as money is locked into a 30 day notice account - was not expecting the old car to fail MOT!)

Is there anything we can do to try to get &more to relax the fraud checks on our account just for an hour? I am looking forward to the new car but dreading the embarrassment of the card decline!

CLAPTON

maybe time for a new card?

alenax

What bank are you with? It seems a bit weird that they decline anything you buy, I'm with Lloyds and when I used my card abroad they just sent me a text with the details (e.g. country where it was used, and whether it was a cash withdrawal or purchase) and with the phone number to call if something wasn't right! This just sounds ridiculous.

thriftymomma

Ring them up before you make the purchase so that they can put a note on your account?

alenax

thriftymomma wrote: »

Ring them up before you make the purchase so that they can put a note on your account?

I thought the OP says they did... and the bank said there's nothing they can do

jonesMUFCforever

Egg gave me the choice of letting any transaction through in a 24 hour window after I secured messaged them - the downside was any fraudelent transaction would be my responsibility.
Up to you really.
If the transaction was declined the garage should be able to let you contact the bank to discuss the transaction.

Jemma-T

Why not get your own cash?

m_13

I sympathise. We went to buy a car with our Barclays debit card and the transaction was declined. They garage rang their card processing company and they said there was an issue with the transaction and they couldn't get a manual approval through. We rang Barclays who said that they hadn't even had a request. After a long embarassing period of the transaction being resubmitted and resubmitted we agreed to go to the branch and withdraw the cash to pay for the car. The garage owner took us to the branch, we went to the counter, showed ID and withdrew the cash with no problem.

You appear not to have the same option as it's a credit card but it would appear odd that all of your large transactions are being blocked? I'd be complaining to &more about them making your card unusable!

ElkyElky

I'd say get another credit card. If it keeps happening and there's nothing you can do, then your best bet is to go elsewhere.

NickX

m_13 wrote: »

I sympathise. We went to buy a car with our Barclays debit card and the transaction was declined. They garage rang their card processing company and they said there was an issue with the transaction and they couldn't get a manual approval through.

Interesting! I once bought a car using a Barclays Debit Card. The transaction was for £20,000 and was a little unusual. They referred the transaction so the dealer had to call them, they then asked to speak to me so I could confirm it was me making the transaction, all was hunky dory, they approved the transaction, I drove off in my dream machine with my bank account £20k lighter :beer:

vet8

Unfortunately none of these comments actually offers the OP any real help for she needs to use the card immediately. I must admit it seems pretty useless to have a card that is declined if the purchase goes over some small limit.