VISA Debit Card

AngelicOne

Can someone please tell me VISA are allowed to give retailers my debit card number and expiry date without my authorisation.

12 months ago, I purchased a travel insurance policy with Columbus Travel with my VISA Debit Card, issued by RBS. The VISA Debit Card i used expired in April 2012 and was replaced with a new card that had a completely different 16 digit number and obviously a new expiry date.

Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when my bank account has its available balance reduced by £111.70, for an insurance policy with Columbus Travel that I did not authorise, as VISA had given Columbus Travel my new card details. Why are they allowed to do this?

I use my card online e.g. Amazon, iTunes, Paypal etc and manually have to go into each account to update the new card details to allow me to continue shopping. Yet VISA gave away my new card details to Columbus Travel, who by debiting my card have left me with less than £5 and I have to wait days for my available balance to sort itself out.

PlutoinCapricorn

I can't help directly, but this reminds me that I was surprised to find that the new expiry date was already known to websites where I had previously used my Visa Debit Card in the past (same number though). So the banks do seem to pass on information directly.

Perhaps they think they are doing you a favour. I would contact your bank.

CLAPTON

AngelicOne wrote: »

Can someone please tell me VISA are allowed to give retailers my debit card number and expiry date without my authorisation.

12 months ago, I purchased a travel insurance policy with Columbus Travel with my VISA Debit Card, issued by RBS. The VISA Debit Card i used expired in April 2012 and was replaced with a new card that had a completely different 16 digit number and obviously a new expiry date.

Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when my bank account has its available balance reduced by £111.70, for an insurance policy with Columbus Travel that I did not authorise, as VISA had given Columbus Travel my new card details. Why are they allowed to do this?

I use my card online e.g. Amazon, iTunes, Paypal etc and manually have to go into each account to update the new card details to allow me to continue shopping. Yet VISA gave away my new card details to Columbus Travel, who by debiting my card have left me with less than £5 and I have to wait days for my available balance to sort itself out.

why do you say they gave your details away

maybe they just transfer the debt from your old number to your new one?

TadleyBaggie

This happens all time, when you get issued with a new card retailers that have the old details can (sometimes) still put a transaction through using the old details.

AngelicOne

why do you say they gave your details away
maybe they just transfer the debt from your old number to your new one?

It is a debit card, not a credit card therefore no debt. It directly takes money from my bank account, which has no overdraft facility. That is why I find it incredible that VISA gave away my number without my authority to Columbus Travel.

It would not have been much of an inconvenience if Columbus Travel had to write to me for my new cards details if I had wanted another travel insurance policy. That way I would have had the choice to give my number to them. We are told to keep our financial details secure yet here is VISA disclosing my number without my authority. In my opinion it is a breach in security. Who else have they given my number too ???

I did contact RBS and was advised by them that it was outwith their control and solely down to VISA for disclosing my number to Columbus Travel.

SnowTiger

AngelicOne wrote: »

Can someone please tell me VISA are allowed to give retailers my debit card number and expiry date without my authorisation.

12 months ago, I purchased a travel insurance policy with Columbus Travel with my VISA Debit Card, issued by RBS. The VISA Debit Card i used expired in April 2012 and was replaced with a new card that had a completely different 16 digit number and obviously a new expiry date.

Your old debit card details are linked to your new card details, so a change doesn't mean transactions made using the old details will automatically fail.

Presumably, when you signed up with Columbus Travel for insurance you gave them recurring/continuous payment authority, perhaps without realising. It's common for insurance to auto-renew each year unless you cancel it.

There's an article about recurring/continuous payment authority on this website, here.

It's also mentioned in Columbus Travel's Policy Wording, which you can download from here, see page 19.

meer53

AngelicOne wrote: »

why do you say they gave your details away
maybe they just transfer the debt from your old number to your new one?

It is a debit card, not a credit card therefore no debt. It directly takes money from my bank account, which has no overdraft facility. That is why I find it incredible that VISA gave away my number without my authority to Columbus Travel.

It would not have been much of an inconvenience if Columbus Travel had to write to me for my new cards details if I had wanted another travel insurance policy. That way I would have had the choice to give my number to them. We are told to keep our financial details secure yet here is VISA disclosing my number without my authority. In my opinion it is a breach in security. Who else have they given my number too ???

I did contact RBS and was advised by them that it was outwith their control and solely down to VISA for disclosing my number to Columbus Travel.

No-one has given anyone your new card details. The new payment has been taken under whats called a Continuous Authority Payment agreement. They don't need your new card details to debit you. They will continue to renew your policy until you cancel it with them. A lot of companies operate this payment system, contact them to cancel the policy and they may refund you. It does say that you can cancel within 14 days and get a full refund.

Miss_Spendalot_2

AngelicOne wrote: »

It is a debit card, not a credit card therefore no debt. It directly takes money from my bank account, which has no overdraft facility. That is why I find it incredible that VISA gave away my number without my authority to Columbus Travel.

It would not have been much of an inconvenience if Columbus Travel had to write to me for my new cards details if I had wanted another travel insurance policy. That way I would have had the choice to give my number to them. We are told to keep our financial details secure yet here is VISA disclosing my number without my authority. In my opinion it is a breach in security. Who else have they given my number too ???

I did contact RBS and was advised by them that it was outwith their control and solely down to VISA for disclosing my number to Columbus Travel.

Another one of those ones again...

Nobody has done anything to you.. Columbus had your details and you must have authorised them to take a continuous payment from your account.. Maybe put a bit of time into checking what companies are going to do with with your account after you have signed on the dotted line in future before you actually sign anything...
Just because you have changed your card number it still links it to the same bank account number so Columbus do not know your card details, expiry date, yadda yadda, and to be honest visa have done nothing wrong.

Gromitt

Even if you had completely cancelled your card, the insurance company could still take money from the card as this is what you authorised them to do. It would only be cancelled for new transactions.

I assume you didn't read the T&Cs when you signed up for the insurance that your policy will automatically renew on a yearly basis.

thenudeone

You almost certainly agreed to auto-renewal when you signed up. It can be a useful tool in some circumstances.

Imagine you're touring Europe for several months and your annual travel, home and motor insurance policies are all on auto-renewal with your card and are due to renew whilst you are away. Shortly after you leave, your card is stolen and you're issued with a new card and number by your bank.

Would you want all of your policies to be cancelled; and if you're lucky, only find out months later that all of your insurances have been cancelled whilst you were away? If you're unlucky, you'll have an incident of some sort and find out when you try to claim!

To avoid this, continuous authorities can continue even after the original card number is no longer "live". If you contact them soon enough, you'll probably be able to cancel and get a refund.