Tesco Credit Card making it impossible to access account online

Pleaseadvise

I've been paying my Tesco Credit Card happily online for months. Then, a few weeks ago, the website wouldn't let me in. It needed to send a code to a mobile, and I don't have a mobile (I've never had one). I had to pay at the bank, while a new code came to me through the post.

A week ago, the same thing happened. Once again, I had to wait while the code came through the post.

It arrived this morning. I used the code to check on my account - it worked. Then I went out for a while, came back and wanted to access the Tesco site again - they'd just sent me a 0% balance transfer offer, and I was going to transfer over what's left on my Barclaycard.

You've guessed it - they don't recognise my laptop AGAIN!

I give up. I'm clearing my Tesco card and I'll just keep paying interest to Barclaycard, since at least they let me sign in online whenever I like.

grumbler

Pleaseadvise wrote: »

I give up. I'm clearing my Tesco card and I'll just keep paying interest to Barclaycard, since at least they let me sign in online whenever I like.

Instead of paying interest use this money to buy a PAYG phone for a tenner.

oldagetraveller

Is this "code" a new thing?
I've never had my Tesco CC account access blocked because of any code being necessary.

"Instead of paying interest use this money to buy a PAYG phone for a tenner."
As this is a money saving site, why should anybody, who chooses not to have a mobile 'phone, have to go and buy one to enable access to their account?

benroles

The Tesco site is a bit OTT with regards to security. It actually uses a little Flash applet that collects a load of details about your machine and plants cookies. Then every time you log in it checks they all still match and you are good to go. Problem is, if anything changes you get the "unknown machine" message which requires a code to be entered. Once you've done it, it remembers you again... until the next time.

And on that note the biggest thing to cause this 'reset issue' is if you clear cookies, the cache etc. of your browser. Effectively you reset to a 'virgin state' for this applet. If you DON'T clear cookies etc. and basically allow IE (or your browser) to cache you might find you don't get the issue so often...

Pleaseadvise

Thanks benroles. Once the problem arose after I formatted my computer, though I don't know why the cookies would have been deleted again today - I haven't changed anything.

I don't want a mobile as I think they seem addictive! I am an old dinosaur.

When the dust settles on our PPI reclaims we may well be debt-free and not need credit cards in future, so not need to jump through all these hoops.

benroles

Reformat would certainly do that... again you effectively change the 'configuration' of your machine. It's not that great though since Flash is 'banned' on apple devices (iPads, iPhones etc.) it means online banking doesn't work since the Flash applet doesn't run.

And even for general PC users etc. the false-positives about it being an 'unrecognised' machine are a pain!

guesswho2000

benroles wrote: »

Reformat would certainly do that... again you effectively change the 'configuration' of your machine. It's not that great though since Flash is 'banned' on apple devices (iPads, iPhones etc.) it means online banking doesn't work since the Flash applet doesn't run.

And even for general PC users etc. the false-positives about it being an 'unrecognised' machine are a pain!

It does work on iPhone/iPad now and has for the last month or so.

Only seems to apply to newer cardholders though, as my Tesco CC has this OTT level of security on it (a pain since I access it from iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows PC) whereas my OHs card doesn't require this.

zerog

Tesco (or MSE perhaps) should really have a warning somewhere saying that you need a mobile to use their site conveniently. Personally my cookies are always cleared, and I just let them send me texts every time, since they're paying after all. I don't really use my mobile either... topped up £10 two years ago and still haven't used it up!

pb3

zerog wrote: »

Tesco (or MSE perhaps) should really have a warning somewhere saying that you need a mobile to use their site conveniently. Personally my cookies are always cleared, and I just let them send me texts every time, since they're paying after all. I don't really use my mobile either... topped up £10 two years ago and still haven't used it up!

I had a similar problem to the OP in that I lost online access to the Tesco credit card website. I set my brower to bin all cookies on close and I regularly delete Adobe local shared objects. I'm not into mobiles either.

To be honest I couldn't be bothered applying for access again. I simply wait for my paper statement and pay the bill electronically. ho hum...

agrinnall

Of course there's really no reason why Tesco couldn't just send the code to a registered email address rather than a mobile number, but it will probably take a concerted campaign by their cardholders to get them to do it.