Barclaycard "fraud" (read: valid transaction) prevention

baldmosher

I did a search for this topic but could only find this thread - I wonder if Barclaycard have had a spate of similar frauds recently.

My dad was moaning on Monday about how he'd been getting long-winded automated calls from Barclaycard to confirm a long list of transactions, for fraud prevention. I've had this happen with a number of card providers, so wasn't surprised by that. But apparently what took the biscuit was that my mum got stuck in a store unable to pay for something on her B/card and had to ring my dad to ring B/card just to approve the transaction with them before she could leave the store with her goods. Embarrassing and very inconvenient.

Last night I paid £380 for a laptop from Play.com and this morning had an automated call from Barclaycard with a computerised voice asking me to confirm a number of transactions (all genuine). That's nice, I thought. Bit long-winded, but at least they care.

I was very surprised to get into work, and find an email from Play, telling me my transaction had been declined! What was the point of the automated call??

Rang them up, but they didn't seem to give two hoots about the inconvenience to me: "you will simply [B/c staff seem to be trained to always say simply] need to go back and process the transaction again... but please wait 5 to 6 minutes for the system to register this" - I kept her on the phone for at least 6 minutes whinging and moaning about how if I can't use my Barclaycard to purchase certain things without loads of trouble afterwards then I would just stop using it entirely and then she told me to wait 5 or 6 minutes again - I gave up at this point.

It could have been something urgent, but thankfully it wasn't. She told me it wasn't based on any specific criteria, but since I "usually make a series of chip & pin payments" and this was a "large internet payment" it triggered the fraud prevention security daemon from the Nth dimension who said "oh dear, this looks a bit dodgy, I think I'll decline that one", despite me making a £90 internet payment to Asda.com earlier that day, which went through fine, and in fact I've done that every month since Christmas.

So if you have a Barclaycard, be prepared for it to be randomly declined if you have the gall to shop at a new store. Better take a backup card with you, or your mobile phone and the land line number (+441604230230) and their freephone number (08009177277) just in case you get stuck at the till.

baldmosher

...that I've just had a load of faff with their website payment system messing up my last payment and sending the statement balance from one B/card account to my other B/card account.....

If only they didn't give me so much cashback.... they've got me over a barrel.

Thankfully the manager I eventually spoke to sorted it out in a jiffy despite the first line support in the first instance messing up the correction entirely, and then in the second instance telling me that it wasn't their fault and they wouldn't (not couldn't) do anything about it.

parallax_20

I was told they monitor your spend patterns and would pick anything up that would be considered unusual. Such as a large purchase over the net. But you are right, it shouldn't have declined your purchase from Play, unless you didn't respond to their automated system. I don't recall them cancelling my purchase when this happened, but I did respond when the automated service called me first time. I don't mind the minor inconvenience for the extra security.

I'm due to go on holiday next week but I think there is an option online to notify them of that fact. But I'd better check again just to be safe then sorry.

ILW

baldmosher wrote: »

apparently what took the biscuit was that my mum got stuck in a store unable to pay for something on her B/card and had to ring my dad to ring B/card just to approve the transaction with them before she could leave the store with her goods. Embarrassing and very inconvenient.


(.

Was she using your fathers card?

Scaredy_Cat_3

parallax_20 wrote: »

I was told they monitor your spend patterns and would pick anything up that would be considered unusual. Such as a large purchase over the net. But you are right, it shouldn't have declined your purchase from Play, unless you didn't respond to their automated system. I don't recall them cancelling my purchase when this happened, but I did respond when the automated service called me first time. I don't mind the minor inconvenience for the extra security.

I'm due to go on holiday next week but I think there is an option online to notify them of that fact. But I'd better check again just to be safe then sorry.

Yes, you can update that info on their website or ring the call centre. It's best to notify them as foreign spending may well look suspicious if they haven't been told you are going abroad.

safc118

just had a quick read and my god!

ive got a barclaycard two infact i had the automated calls and all i have to say is its good to see that they are doing things in the background to prevent fraud

im sure if they didnt do this and you were seeing unauthorised transactions on your statements then you would be much much more frustrated:money:

DGJsaver

ILW wrote: »

Was she using your fathers card?

Why do you ask ?
It clearly says `her` card