Using Halifax credit card abroad

Sunster25

Currently travelling in the US and went to use Halifax credit card and it was declined. I had previously called them before my trip to inform I would be visiting this US. When I called customer service to inquire why it had been declined they informed me that me it was swiped and my card can only be used using chip and pin. However what was staggering was that they could not unblock it as their security team all had gone home. Lucky I have back up debit and credit cards but this is 2012 surely Halifax should have a 24/7 security team?

Has anyone else experienced this with Halifax?

thumperrabbit

My son tried to use his last week in Philadelphia when he arrived and it was declined also. I phoned them and they claimed there was no block on it and they would note that he was in Philadelphia for future. They then said so if he tries it again in 2 hours it will be fine, thus contradicting themselves when they said there was no block. He did try it again and it worked fine.This was in a Wal-mart machine.

Roger1

Sunster25 wrote: »

When I called customer service to inquire why it had been declined they informed me that me it was swiped and my card can only be used using chip and pin.

What absolute nonsense!

American banks are famous for not bothering to introduce chip and PIN, and most American cards don't have them. It follows that chip and PIN use is not widespread in the US. You'd expect Halifax to know this.

Besides, why do they think your card has a magnetic stripe? So it can be swiped!

It was good that you had back up with cards from better informed organisations.

chattychappy

Roger1 wrote: »

What absolute nonsense!

CS reps often don't know what's going on, but there might be a grain of truth/misunderstanding here.

I use CCs overseas alot, often in places where signatures are still used. It's all just part of the risk assessment with anti-fraud systems. If you are travelling in a country with chip'n'pin then they are less likely to believe the card has been cloned. I've had situations where a card is blocked and then comes back to life again (without a phone call). One of my theories is that using it with a PIN can trigger its unblocking - or provide positive evidence if someone manually reviews the account. Eg if you have used chip'n'pin in a particular foreign location then that confirms the card is there - making a signature transaction in the same place less likely to be fraudulent (though you could argue it the other way, I suppose).

Most of my transactions are foreign and I'm never happy unless I have 3 or 4 cards with me. Blocks are just a fact of life and they rarely seem logical and CS reps rarely provide a logical explanation. You must take backups.

AdamJK_2

Most of the cards issued now don't permit the PIN to be bypassed i.e. pay by swipe & signature. This is on both credit & debit cards, if you try to bypass the PIN the transaction would usually decline as the issuer doesn't view this as secure method of verification.

Certainly the case on Visa debit cards now being issued.

luci

I used the Halifax Clarity card recently in Vegas for 60 transactions and none of them were chip and pin, every one was swiped, apart from one cash withdrawal at an ATM.

chattychappy

AdamJK wrote: »

Most of the cards issued now don't permit the PIN to be bypassed i.e. pay by swipe & signature. This is on both credit & debit cards, if you try to bypass the PIN the transaction would usually decline as the issuer doesn't view this as secure method of verification.

Certainly the case on Visa debit cards now being issued.

Nah... that's relevant to situations where the merchant has chip'n'pin. All UK cards (in my experience) work happily on a swipe with merchants that don't have chip'n'pin. (usually when you're overseas) - subject to getting blocked. In my experience, when they get blocked abroad, it's often following the transaction that causes concern. (Eg authorises on a swipe in a shop, but then fails on the next transaction, even if that one is chip'n'pin/ATM etc.)

Much of the world is not on chip'n'pin, and visa/mastercard promote worldwide acceptance. They don't generally prevent UK cards working in non chip'n'pin destinations.