Fraud Prevention

Narf

Something very strange seems to be happening to my credit/debit cards. I've had my cards ranging from 12 months to 12 years and never had a problem until now.

Last week, I was trying to rent a car from Avis.com for an upcoming holiday. I chose the .com site as it was slightly cheaper to it do there than the .co.uk version. However, every time I entered my address a message would pop up informing me it didn't match my Nationwide credit card address (I only had 3 text boxes to fit it into). I tried every variation I could think of to make it work, but to no avail. Admitting defeat, I went to Avis.co.uk to make the booking there, only to find my card wouldn't authorise. To cut a long story short, every time I entered a new address at .com, a new booking had been created. I had reserved, and paid for, 7 cars! By the time I went to .co.uk, my card had been blocked by fraud prevention.

All this was sorted and the reservations and payments were cancelled, and the block removed from my card. All seemed well until 2 nights ago when I tried to do the weekly shop online. This time my MBNA card refused to authorise until I spoke to their fraud prevention department. This was quickly followed by exactly the same thing when I tried to purchase something else using a Barclaycard. And, just now, while trying to pay my Barclaycard bill online, fraud prevention blocked my Nationwide debit card!

I refuse to believe that this is all just coincidence, particularly as the MBNA and debit card transactions are regular and fit my spending pattern perfectly.
I asked the helpful man at Nationwide if he had any idea why this was happening. He admitted he had no idea and suggested it may be a Verified by Visa issue (I hate VbV), but that doesn't add up as the MBNA card is a Mastercard. I'm now wondering if I need to spend on the other cards I have just to prevent them being blocked in the future.

Has anyone got any idea why this would happen, or is it all just an amazing coincidence?

The blocked cards, in order;
Nationwide Select (Visa)
MBNA (Mastercard)
Barclaycard (Visa)
Nationwide debit (Visa)

dalesrider

Narf wrote: »

I refuse to believe that this is all just coincidence, particularly as the MBNA and debit card transactions are regular and fit my spending pattern perfectly.

Fraud systems do not work on YOUR spending pattern. They work on known fraud patterns. Which will be updated as and when each new fraud case is confirmed.

What would worry me is that Nationwide allowed 7 car hire transactions ALL with incorrect address details before it kicked in. :eek:

bengalknights

Sounds like coincidence more than anything