MSE News: Going on holiday? Avoid the blocked card nightmare

callum9999

bobcoates wrote: »

Re: Telling Nationwide anyway for piece of mind, from my experience it won't give you any! They still block it.
I visited Australia last year and my Flex Debit card worked fine for the first couple of weeks, then got blocked.
Had to phone N/W up to get it unblocked. They asked for the date when I left Australia to "put on the system".
I also told them I was stopping over in Singapore going home and she took those dates as well.
She did add though that it probably wouldn't work and the cards were still liable to be blocked.
She was right! Never did work in Singapore.

I've had credit (mainly) and debit cards blocked so many times for "unusual spending pattern" and normally when in the UK, I always carry two of each from different banks.

I've used my Flex Debit card in Australia pretty much daily, sometimes making several large cash withdrawals on one day, for the last 7 months and I haven't had a single problem with it (and I didn't tell them I was going).

AlanS

We recently went to New York. I phoned my bank (Lloyds TSB) beforehand to tell them this, and to make sure that my card would work OK over there.

When we got there, I tried card in a cash point machine and it refused to give me any money. I phoned Lloyds and eventually got through to speak to someone, they said that my card had been blocked and that they'd sort out the unblocking of it. They could not explain why it had happened as they could see the note on my file saying I'd phoned them beforehand. I spent so long going through all the different menu options when I phoned them and being passed to different departments, that it added about £25 to my mobile phone bill.

When I got back to England, I telephoned Lloyds to find out what had happened, but they still couldn't explain it. I asked them if they could refund the £25 it had cost me phoning them ( and accepting calls from them when they phoned me to let me know my card was OK again ), but they refused, and the person I spoke to was quite rude.

I've been with Lloyds TSB ( and plain TSB before that ) for over 40 years, but on August 1st, they're going to be contacted by Nationwide asking for a list of all my direct debit details, as the process of moving bank accounts starts.

So they've lost a loyal customer over this fiasco.

Moral ... if you're with Lloyds and telephone them to say you're going abroad, tell them you don't just want a note on your account, but you want to have your account adjusted correctly so that your cards work OK when you're away.

Better still, open a Nationwide current account and stick your holiday money in there as they don't charge you to withdraw your money when you're abroad ( unlike Lloyds who charge about £1 a transaction ! )

Doshwaster

AlanS wrote: »

Better still, open a Nationwide current account and stick your holiday money in there as they don't charge you to withdraw your money when you're abroad ( unlike Lloyds who charge about £1 a transaction ! )

I have a Nationwide account which I *only* use for foreign travel. Before leaving I will transfer in my expected spending money (and can always top it up with Internet banking as HSBC to Nationwide transfers are now instant). Not only do you get cheaper withdraws but another advantage is that if the card ever gets cloned then the miscreants won't have access to your main current account.

bantamboy1

Have Thomas Cook Visa. Phoned before went away to tell going on holiday. Tried to use card but declined several times. Phoned them up, said there was no reason for declining and advised to try again. Also blamed merchant for using terminal wrong! Tried again but still declined. Called them when got back, said it was due to suspicious activity. Told them called before went and whilst there so how is it suspicious? Snotty git on phone started explaining what fraud is!!! Lost wiil to live and hung up, paying bill and cancelling!

Proxy

I was well and truly caught out by this a few years ago.

Out in Africa, my card got blocked. I hadn't told them - but i'd been to plenty of other places in the years previous and had no problem at all. Of course i didn't have access to a phone either. Luckily i have other cards.

I always phone now, so that's not a problem.

The problem is trying to access my online banking. With Halifax, it'll block me after logging on once from abroad - the only way to unlock being a call to your home phone or mobile. Which, to be honest, isn't possible.

Amatrix

A friend of mine was travelling to Bangalore for business and advised Egg in advance when and where he was travelling. Upon checking out of the Indian hotel his card was declined and he had to use his debit card at great expenses - luckily he had enough cash to cover the bill.

When I visited Thailand last year I attempted the same - called Egg in advance and they said they would make a note but it would NOT guarantee the transaction would not be stopped. But the helpful guy did give me a direct international number for their security division and advised of their opening hours - unhelpfully (not surprising from Egg frankly) this was UK office hours not 24 hours - totally useless when you are stranded halfway round the world in the middle of the night because some idiot "computer says no" software programme thinks you're doing something dodgy.

So on the last night of my holiday when I should have been enjoying myself in the cocktail bar at 10pm I was on the phone to Egg trying to get my hotel bill paid. I couldn't wait until I checked out the next day as the Egg security dept. would be closed in the middle of the night (UK time). In the end it cost me £15 in call charges and two hours of my last night on holiday and I still couldn't get Egg to authorise the transaction.

Used my Capital One card without having given them any advance warning and the payment went through first time for approval.

The moral is: Never ever use an Egg card abroad unless you want to be left stranded and ruin your holiday with grief and stress. And always always take one or two alternative methods of payment with you.

When I got home I found I had a voicemail on my mobile and an email from Egg asking me to contact them concerning the security on my card account. How utterly useless is that when you are thousands of miles away and out of hours???

I'm sorry I don't have the Egg Security DDI number handy but will try and look it out and post to the forum later.

luci

One thing I forgot to mention earlier, or at least didn't emphasise. The Nationwide blocked my card with no call to the mobile to check the suspect transactions. When they did eventually call about other transactions a few weeks after we got home, they phoned the home number! I'm not likely to be there if I'm legitimately using the card abroad, am I?

I had made sure my contact details were correct a couple of months previously. I had spoken to their Fraud Dept several times and asked for the mobile number to be made the primary number, but still they called the house. I have now asked for all numbers apart from the mobile to be taken off their records.

Compare this to Capital One who, within 30 mins of making a large transcation online, were on the mobile checking it was genuine. They are really good at checking with you as I've had several phone calls from them.

I had reason to call Nationwide Credit Card services this morning. Yet again I was told that they would speak to "someone" about getting the message on their website changed. However I could almost see him sit up straight when I told him about the blocked card article in the weekly email incorrectly stating that you didn't need to advise them.

He said he would bring that to the attention of a manager.

Doshwaster

Amatrix wrote: »

The moral is: Never ever use an Egg card abroad unless you want to be left stranded and ruin your holiday with grief and stress. And always always take one or two alternative methods of payment with you.

Hmmm... I use my Egg card for business expenses when travelling for work (1% cash back - makes me about £200 a year:)) and have never had a problem. Amazing how people's experiences vary with the same company.

I'd agree how frustrating it is when you can't get hold of a human being after the "computer says no". It is especially frustrating when UK may be sleeping but their actual call centre is in India!

VictimOfImpersonation

luci wrote: »

Compare this to Capital One who, within 30 mins of making a large transcation online, were on the mobile checking it was genuine. They are really good at checking with you as I've had several phone calls from them.

I beg to differ I'm afraid. It cost them the limit in my case £3,000 worth of electronic goods in February on an account that hadn't been used for around 2 years. The transactions took place on the very same day a replacement card was activated and within four days of a fraudulent call to their lost and stolen number which ensured a new card and PIN were on their way without my knowledge. Classic postal intercept fraud, classic completely unusual behaviour on the account. If I remember correctly they were alerted by their systems, but somehow it was too late to avoid the loss which appeared on my account and was later contra'd.

The banking systems are far too vulnerable and even though individuals sooner or later do get their money back, we all pay in grey hairs and increased charges and interest rates in the end.

moneysavingmama_2

It ain't necessarily so that NatWest don't want to be informed if you go abroad. I spent 5 days in Bangkok in March and used my NatWest Visa Debit card to withdraw money from an ATM. The next day I tried to use it in a supermarket to buy some wine for the friends I'd been staying with but it was declined. At the time I thought nothing of it, reasoning that maybe Thailand didn't do debit cards but when I got back to England I needed to fill the car up on the journey home so pulled into the services where my card was declined again! I called the bank as soon as I was able and was told that due to the 'unusual activity' on my card it had indeed been blocked. As it was Good Friday I had to wait until Easter Saturday to go into the local branch and then had to call the banks Fraud Prevention Office (on their phone) and answer various questions about what I'd used the card for prior to the trip, not easy when you're still jet-lagged! It was all OK in the end but had my husband called the bank before we went it wouldn't have happened