Halifax Credit Card Helpline NOT 24/7

sfax

organic_choc wrote: »

If this is how Halifax operates they should just forget about issuing credit cards.

So orders placed with companies which I have ordered from for years and years, delivered to my own home look fraudulent, pretty much all online transactions look fraudulent.

I have spent about 20k a year for 4 years on a Halifax credit card (including online transactions) and the occasional transaction has been blocked but it's happened no more than 10 times over 4 years. There are certain online transactions that are more likely to get blocked like transactions less than £5 because they match a pattern of fraudulent use

That said, they should put an asterisk next to the 24/7, saying excluding certain bank holidays, and although they have been great for earning me over £1,000 in cashback they are a bit Mickey Mouse as demonstrated by their atrocious website

organic_choc

stclair wrote: »

If it was fraud and the bank did not act on it, what would have been the outcome?

Follow the banks complaint procedure should you wish to raise any concerns:

http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/howtocomplain.asp

"If it was fraud and the bank did not act on it, what would have been the outcome?"

You have missed my point. There is always a risk that any transaction can be fraudulent. The task for the Frauds dept is to maintain a balance of not blocking genuine transactions while stopping a good percentage of frauds. I imagine an order placed using an account that has been in use for over 10 years, delivered to the billing address being fraudulent is very low. So in my case they have pretty much fall flat on their face. Repeatedly so.

As I have said to stop frauds entirely the banks should stop allowing all online transactions.

I will write a formal complain letter you need not worry. I will probably write to Money Box too. Halifax has not blocked any similar purchases until the last 4 months or so. I think it has to be because they have implemented new fraudulent detecting facilities. And it affect me adversely.

stclair

organic_choc wrote: »

"If it was fraud and the bank did not act on it, what would have been the outcome?"

You have missed my point. There is always a risk that any transaction can be fraudulent. The task for the Frauds dept is to maintain a balance of not blocking genuine transactions while stopping a good percentage of frauds. I imagine an order placed using an account that has been in use for over 10 years, delivered to the billing address being fraudulent is very low. So in my case they have pretty much fall flat on their face. Repeatedly so.

As I have said to stop frauds entirely the banks should stop allowing all online transactions.

I will write a formal complain letter you need not worry. I will probably write to Money Box too. Halifax has not blocked any similar purchases until the last 4 months or so. I think it has to be because they have implemented new fraudulent detecting facilities. And it affect me adversely.

I have not missed anything I just think your being a "drama Queen".

organic_choc

sfax wrote: »

I have spent about 20k a year for 4 years on a Halifax credit card (including online transactions) and the occasional transaction has been blocked but it's happened no more than 10 times over 4 years. There are certain online transactions that are more likely to get blocked like transactions less than £5 because they match a pattern of fraudulent use

That said, they should put an asterisk next to the 24/7, saying excluding certain bank holidays, and although they have been great for earning me over £1,000 in cashback they are a bit Mickey Mouse as demonstrated by their atrocious website

I guess I am lucky compared to you in terms of number of times I was blocked as I was never blocked until September this year, and I'd been with them for over 10 years. £1000? You must have a fabulous cashback rate!

organic_choc

stclair wrote: »

I have not missed anything I just think your being a "drama Queen".

What you are saying is banks' fraud departments can do no wrong. Which is clearly not the case. You missed it all.

sfax

It's annoying but it's better to get the odd transaction blocked than to get your statement and see £1,000 has been taken fraudulently. Yes you'll get it all back normally but it's a major hassle and has knock on effects sometimes like credit rating impact

My card was blocked in New York and I'd specifically told them I was taking it there to go shopping on specific dates. Took 30 mins in the phone to get it unblocked. Annoying when you've taken the time to call them first

Cashback average is about 1.3%. You can't get the same card anymore and it's still as good as most new cashback cards (after intro) for my level of spending

stclair

organic_choc wrote: »

What you are saying is banks' fraud departments can do no wrong. Which is clearly not the case. You missed it all.

Thier dammed if they do dammed if they dont.

Plus ive remembered on the IVR prior to xmas they said it would not be open on Christmas Day, just the same as Lloyds TSB and more than likely The Bank of Scotland to.

AdamJK_2

Maybe I'm missing something but it sounds like you're not happy that a bank is closed on a bank holiday.

I'd have thought that one would have been pretty much self-explanatory myself.

The 24/7 means that the bank lines are open 24/7. There's the emergency Lost & Stolen line that is staffed and also full automated customer services available plus internet banking.

Certain services such as Fraud Investigation, specialist payment teams etc wouldn't be available due to the bank holiday. I suspect that the reason you didn't get too far on the automated service is that the system was transferring you to a fraud line and they weren't working. I'd say that rather than it being misleading advertising of 24/7 customer service, it's actually a problem with the phone lines as maybe it should have apologised and asked you to call back at a later date.

organic_choc

stclair wrote: »

Thier dammed if they do dammed if they dont.

Plus ive remembered on the IVR prior to xmas they said it would not be open on Christmas Day, just the same as Lloyds TSB and more than likely The Bank of Scotland to.

I am just an ordinary customer. I don't call my credit card company that often except when they block me and so IVR or not I wouldn't know.

organic_choc

AdamJK wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something but it sounds like you're not happy that a bank is closed on a bank holiday.

I'd have thought that one would have been pretty much self-explanatory myself.

The 24/7 means that the bank lines are open 24/7. There's the emergency Lost & Stolen line that is staffed and also full automated customer services available plus internet banking.

Certain services such as Fraud Investigation, specialist payment teams etc wouldn't be available due to the bank holiday. I suspect that the reason you didn't get too far on the automated service is that the system was transferring you to a fraud line and they weren't working. I'd say that rather than it being misleading advertising of 24/7 customer service, it's actually a problem with the phone lines as maybe it should have apologised and asked you to call back at a later date.

I have never tried calling on other bank holidays so I don't know if this is the standard service offerings on bank holidays.

These guys are supposed to operate globally so I thought may be someone somewhere in the whole world within this bank can answer my call? May be I expect too much. But many times I have landed at foreign airports and I saw HBOS (or it could be RBS) advertisements plastered all over so at the back of my mind I expected services 24/7 around the year.