Santander's insane fraud protection declining card

razord

Hey guys,

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on my brother's card being declined.

He bought a server online yesterday for £200, and the available balance of his card went down accordingly, however since then he hasn't been able to purchase anything else online, with card being declined - despite the money coming off his available balance. His server order is showing as "Payment Not Taken" - so I suspect they declined the £200 too, but he can't find out today.

The problem is, Santander refuse to admit this is their fault. They say any transactions have been approved, and they just can't see some of the ones which are failing coming through on their systems. It appears that the fraud system doesn't actually show things on the staff systems for a number of hours, or days, afterward.

My mum, also with santander recently moved home and had to go through buying things like white goods - She had this exact same problem. Transactions were being declined, but Santander refused to acknowledge it as their fault, nor could they see anything on their systems about the refused transactions.

It took mum about a week of problems before someone in the fraud team was able to actually talk to someone who was able to solve her problem.

Has this happened to anyone else? Or does anyone know how to get it resolved?

Currently there is about £300 of pending funds now which he can't access for days until it comes back to his account, meaning he can't reorder things until then. It's just utterly stupid!

Ben8282

If the transactions were declined for a security check they would not be showing as pending. This is not right.

meer53

Sometimes retailers say transactions are declined because they can't be bothered to go through asking extra security questions. If Santander say they can't see the declined transactions then it sounds like a retailer error rather than Santander.



Your brother will need to speak to Santander tomorrow.

dalesrider

Ben8282 wrote: »

If the transactions were declined for a security check they would not be showing as pending. This is not right.

Transactions that are declined by the security system will not show on a customers account on the authorisation side of it. As they never get that far.


The only staff that will be able to see them are the staff that have access to the security system.
Which will be the fraud/cards dept and the dept that make the o/b calls. Your average call center will not access to it.

Every transaction that is made goes through this system and whoever has access will be able to see them straight away.

i would say that if the avaiable balance went down, then it got passed santanders security system. As such possibley the reason for the decline is more likely to be at the retailer if they have run further checks.

As to the OP's case with his mother. the mention that she had just moved. Could be the issue. If she had not updated her address with the bank, and was using her new address, for delivery/card holder address. A retailer would decline the transaction on checks, as address details being wrong that are linked to the card holder.

Ben8282

dalesrider. Although I am not disagreeing with what you have written, when I have had a charge declined for security check the call centre staff are aware of the decline/security block as when I have called them they tell me that the decline was due to security block and transfer me to fraud dept.

But such declines never appear on my own online account or cause available balance to be reduced etc.

meer53

Ben8282 wrote: »

dalesrider. Although I am not disagreeing with what you have written, when I have had a charge declined for security check the call centre staff are aware of the decline/security block as when I have called them they tell me that the decline was due to security block and transfer me to fraud dept.

But such declines never appear on my own online account or cause available balance to be reduced etc.

Thats because they only appear on the fraud detection system and not on your account. There will be notes on your account from the fraud detection team. Call centre staff rarely have access to the fraud detection systems.

bobblebob

So should any payment go through the fraud detection system before being authorised and taken from your account?

Few years back got a call from Halifax saying they noticed 4 unusually payments on my account (online betting site in Cyprus or something). They said they had been detected and stopped. 3 days later the money left my account. So if Halifax's systems noticed the fraud, why was it allowed to be authorised ?

meer53

bobblebob wrote: »

So should any payment go through the fraud detection system before being authorised and taken from your account?

Few years back got a call from Halifax saying they noticed 4 unusually payments on my account (online betting site in Cyprus or something). They said they had been detected and stopped. 3 days later the money left my account. So if Halifax's systems noticed the fraud, why was it allowed to be authorised ?

Not all payments go through the fraud detection systems.

Even if they are fraud, if they've been authorised, they will still debit your account as all authorised card payments are guaranteed. When they debit thats when the bank steps in and refunds your account.

The fraud detection system picks up on transactions as they are made if they are unusual, such as high amounts out of your normal spending pattern, multiple transactions in a short space of time, transactions made at retailers where there has been known fraud previously. The system doesn't pick all transactions up though and some can still debit without triggering a check. Thats why it's important to monitor your account regularly.