Barclaycard.. over-zealous fraud protection.

techno12

Sigh.. it's happened again.

I took advantage of the recent Gamestation PS3 bundle preorder misprice (was £119.99 instead of £199.99). Was waiting all week, along with other people, to see if they'd honour it, and on thursday morning, yay they did! However, Barclaycard's stupid fraud detection kicked in and rejected the transaction, so I've lost out on £80 as Gamestation have cancelled the order.

By the time the fraud call was made to me, the transaction had already gone through, then been cancelled (ie two £119.99 were on record, one the initial transaction, the other the refund),

I told Barclaycard years ago to stop doing this when I make the occasional 'expensive tech purchase', as they did the same thing when I ordered £500 of PC components years ago. Don't just blindly reject all transactions that are 'outside your normal spending pattern' - occasional tech purchases are my spending pattern!

Very frustrating, and makes the card pretty much useless as any occasional transaction is going to be rejected..grr

techno12

Wow!

I take it all back Barclaycard.

After I sent a second secure message to them about it, they called me just now offering £100 as a goodwill gesture. I'm gobsmacked!

sistafromanothermista

Yay:T Great news!

dalesrider

techno12 wrote: »

Wow!

I take it all back Barclaycard.

After I sent a second secure message to them about it, they called me just now offering £100 as a goodwill gesture. I'm gobsmacked!

Thats crazy....
Fraud checks are something that they have to have in place.. Which is why they cannot take you out of them. The FSA would haul them over the coals.

I guess the reason it kicked in is a mass of transactions to the same retailer flaging into the system.
Fraudsters like to hit a retailer for the same amounts in a short period.

chattychappy

dalesrider wrote: »

The FSA would haul them over the coals.

CC issuers do have duties to prevent financial crime, but they are regulated by the OFT, not the FSA.

techno12

Yeah I know they have duties to prevent financial crime, but to reject any 'unusual' transaction is just not on - ie some of us use the card to buy larger items solely for the section 75 protection. I'm one of those people who's always paid the balance off in full each month (I've had it 20+ yrs and not paid a penny in interest - it's used loads for small transactions for travel/hotels etc - it's just the once in a blue moon larger transaction that seems to be rejected for some reason. This time it's cost them).

I'm very pleased with the result though - top notch CS Barclaycard - and hopefully in a year or two's time when I make my next 'tech' purchase for a relatively trivial amount, they won't reject it!

Queries

techno12. GOOD LUCK!!!!!