Nationwide Select Credit Card Problems Abroad!

s2k_adz

Hey guys!

I recently followed some of the advice on this site and took out a Nationwide Select Visa Credit card as I have a few months of travelling to different countries ahead.

At the moment I am in Iceland and despite letting Nationwide know I am here, the card hasn't worked in two separate places on multiple occasions, but has worked in others.

I have rung Nationwide who say that they are approving all of the transactions but no funds have been taken on the occasions I couldn't pay. Both places card machine has simply given me a print out saying 'No Response' or 'No Answer'.

Nationwide seem at a loss to why this is happening and are blaming the venues the cards wont work in. My other half has a Halifax Clarity Mastercard CC and this has worked perfectly in their machines.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here? I don't want the card if its only usable half of the time!

[Deleted User]

No idea why it isn't working, but I have had a Select Card since they came out having automatically been changed from the Gold Card, i travel around the world and have never had any issues.

It could be the machine, the Nationwide one is Visa and the Halifax one is Mastercard.

Nationwide are normally very good, I have never had an issue with their customer service so i would doubt they would willingly hide anything.

reclusive46

s2k_adz wrote: »

Hey guys!

I recently followed some of the advice on this site and took out a Nationwide Select Visa Credit card as I have a few months of travelling to different countries ahead.

At the moment I am in Iceland and despite letting Nationwide know I am here, the card hasn't worked in two separate places on multiple occasions, but has worked in others.

I have rung Nationwide who say that they are approving all of the transactions but no funds have been taken on the occasions I couldn't pay. Both places card machine has simply given me a print out saying 'No Response' or 'No Answer'.

Nationwide seem at a loss to why this is happening and are blaming the venues the cards wont work in. My other half has a Halifax Clarity Mastercard CC and this has worked perfectly in their machines.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here? I don't want the card if its only usable half of the time!

I've had the exact same problem with my Halifax Clarity in Spain with a few merchants.

I've investigated it and basically what it means is that the acquiring bank (The bank who runs the machine the merchant has) has some kind of connection problem with Nationwide (Or whoever issues the card). It could be Nationwides fault, it could be the merchant banks (Far more likely).

The official meaning of "No response" is "The terminal was unable to contact or receive a response from the issuing bank".

s2k_adz

Thanks for your replies!

Glad to hear it's not isolated to my account and that others have experienced it. I have to say that I cant fault Nationwides customer service and they have been very helpful each time I have rung!

It's very odd that essentially what appears to be a communication issue still let's transactions fail in this modern world! I think maybe I should get a Clarity card as well as a backup whilst away.

s2k_adz

Very impressed at the speed of replies on this forum too

jonesMUFCforever

No answer or No reply suggests a problem in the country you are in not your card. A blocked card would come up with a Decline.
I hope like me that when you go abroad you have a plan B ie as many other cards as you possibly fit in your back pocket just in case.

zerog

s2k_adz wrote: »

It's very odd that essentially what appears to be a communication issue still let's transactions fail in this modern world! I think maybe I should get a Clarity card as well as a backup whilst away.

You do know that credit card transactions are processed through ordinary phone lines, right?

reclusive46

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I hope like me that when you go abroad you have a plan B ie as many other cards as you possibly fit in your back pocket just in case.

Haha yeah. Preferably of different card networks. Especially since the Visa network crash in Canada. You could only use MasterCard (And not even all MasterCards at ATMs as some banks still us the Visa Plus ATM network on their MasterCard cards) and American Express then.

s2k_adz

zerog wrote: »

You do know that credit card transactions are processed through ordinary phone lines, right?

Yes, but the problem here still appears to be with communication so what is your point?

I have backup cards but none are particularly fee free abroad. My partner took out a Clarity card as a backup and we have been able to use this on the occasions mine hasn't worked. I think I'll look at getting a Clarity card as well I think for later in the year when I'm abroad alone.

Dirk_Gently_2

zerog wrote: »

You do know that credit card transactions are processed through ordinary phone lines, right?

Not all of them, depends on the retailer. But many use data over voice, so even it's an analogue phone line the and it's in use the data can still be sent. But more and more use some kind of dedicated data connection dedicated as well as ADSL.

To me, this sounds much more like a communications problem between the retailer's card processing centre and the Nationwide system than a problem between the retailer and their card processing centre.

System

I could be anything, especially where the non-native language in involved as translations will be a low priority.

Iceland is incredibly card driven, so I would think it was a problem with the UK side of things.

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

Not all of them, depends on the retailer. But many use data over voice, so even it's an analogue phone line the and it's in use the data can still be sent. But more and more use some kind of dedicated data connection dedicated as well as ADSL.

To me, this sounds much more like a communications problem between the retailer's card processing centre and the Nationwide system than a problem between the retailer and their card processing centre.