Over-zealous fraud protection declining my card!

MrsMillar

Egg Money seem to do this all the time to me too. I'm sure I'd change my tune if they actually did catch fraudulent activity, but it is quite irritating. Each time I've tried to pay for a holiday with the card, they've not authorised it until I've rung them to say that it's a correct transaction. Clearly it looks unusual - I don't pay for holidays every week!

chappers

Don't get me started on this one bloody Barclaycard, was in India two years ago and used my Barclaycard twice no problem, went to use it a third time declined tried using it again, declined so phoned them they said there was some unusual activity on my account i.e used in India. Of course there bl***y well was I was on holiday. Anyway said my account would be reactivated the next day, still wasn't so phoned again they said it would be done tomorrow. Sure enough the next day my card worked fine. Three days or so later card declined again, phoned Barclaycard they said there had been some unusual transactions on my account i.e made in India and was I actually in India. Well I hit the roof and cut up the card there and then.
Its ridiculous they are insured up to the hilt and nowadays with chip and PIN its supposed to be so secure, or so they tell us.
I have a Morgan Stanley card not the best interest rate but excellent service, they never decline any purchase, but ring me within a couple of hours of any suspicious transaction, that way I am not put in the inconvienient position of not being able to pay for something and they are not exposed to large fraudulant transactions.

MrsMillar

Well whaddya know! Within less than 24 hours of my last post complaining about Egg money's overzealous monitoring of potentially fraudulent transactions, they have actually spotted a real dodgy one.....

Apparently someone tried to spend 51p (1 dollar) on iTunes yesterday. I don't use iTunes. I nearly laughed when they said the amount, but they queried it cos apparently a small spend like that is a way of checking that a card is "active". They said this is a very common practice.......

To be fair, they called me rather than letting me try and use the card then refusing it.

They've now got to cancel my card and reissue it, which is a pain. But, on this occasion I'm glad they got in touch. I think I'll make the effort to let them know before I next go abroad and am likely to be using my card!

Ho-hum.

MrsMillar

Egg Money got my new card to me today - they only informed me about the problem yesterday.....

rosalind110

I know that this is a very old thread, but nothing at all has changed and for some of us it's worse than for others.

Has anyone noticed that every time a bank or credit card company "identifies" unusual activity, (like in January when I "unusually" ordered my groceries online as I have done every single month since I first had a computer ten years ago) and puts a stop on your card, the only way you can sort this out is to telephone them? Sometimes they kindly offer hard of hearing customers like me the option of a minicom number, which is fine if you have upwards of three hundred pounds to spend on one, but not so good if you haven't. Oh yes, and even if you have got the machine, they won't talk to you if they can't hear your voice and they won't speak to you via a Typetalk operator, because he/she is a third party. One or two companies do have secure email but as soon as they "identify" a 'problem' you find that you are blocked from that facility and it's the phone or nothing.

So there you are, with the delivery man at the door unable to pay with your own shopping, with your own money that, deaf as you are, you actually managed to earn at a paying job all by yourself, just like comptetent 'normal' people. You have no idea what the problem is because the bank hasn't bothered to mention that they've put a stop on everything. However, there are other indications like the late fees, default messages and the extra interest that you've accrued because the bank has frozen you account and hasn't paid your bills.

So, in good faith, because you've written to the bank/credit company and/or signed forms in their presence authorising him to speak on your behalf, you wait for your husband to come home from work and telephone said number. Several hours later, he finally gets on the phone, only they won't speak to him because none of the several letters of authorisation you've sent are "on the computer". He asks if he can rely information and questions to me and let me answer direct on the phone, they say "No". Presumably it's because he doesn't have a female voice whereas any woman speaking on the phone absolutely MUST be me. It's Friday evening and they suggest that I travel the ten miles to my bank branch on Monday morning to speak to them in person. Alternatively I could write a letter and send it by post. Naturally there's no way that I might have to work over the weeked and could need money to travel to work or even to eat. Monday is fine because they think it is.

Somehow we get through the weekend and then off we go by taxi to the bank. (the car is stuck in the repair shop for the weekend because I can't pay the bill). When we get to the bank they finally let me access my account. We ask what we can do to prevent a re-occurance and they suggest that I add my husband to my account. In desperation, we do.

So now, at 54 years of age I'm no longer allowed to administer my own account or have the same financial privacy as every other competent adult. That just leaves the credit card company. Two similar credit card fiascos later and a stop was put on the last surviving card just a few minutes ago just after I "unusually" paid my hairdresser.

Why do all financial companies believe that the law under the Disability Discrimination Act does not apply to them? Clearly little things like 'equal access', 'the same service as everyone else' and not putting obstructions in the way of disabled people mean nothing at all to them. All it would take is a signed clause in their paperwork and secure email and none of these humiliating and frustrating things would happen.

Ritchie74

leoetal19 wrote: »

somthing similar happened recently to me with my debit card. i was paying £3.75 at the post office and despite temporarily (in one account wating to pay off bills) having over £13k in my account it declined the payment-for safety reasons they said as there was so much in the account but surely if someone was going to steal my loot they wouldnt do it £3.75 at a time!!!!

You'd be surprised !
The vast majority of stolen cards have a small amount put through them, before they are sold on. A thief has a reputation to hold, otherwise (s)he won't get the buyers. Check for authorisation with a small amount (customer won't notice), sell on, then bang- all the limit is gone!

woody01

I have a Capital One Platinum and last year i bought a £900 TV via the internet.
Within 2 minutes of confirming my purchase, Cap One were ringing me on my mobile to verify it was me.

Outstanding service