Why Won't Halifax Let Me Spend My Money?

dollydiva

brewerdave wrote: »

@dollydiva - Have you got "verified by Visa/Mastercard" set up on your debit card? if so ,did you get as far as "verified by Visa/Mastercard" screen? Or did your purchase fail before that stage?

Failed after that. Instead of being presented with the 'success screen' at the website, message is 'failed/cancelled'

Steve_xx

dollydiva wrote: »

Bye Halifax...

....and Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and TSB because they all use similar front end systems by the looks of things.

I appreciate that it is annoying when you can't move your money when you want to, but I think in these days of easy fraud you might have to accept that there are going to be problems and those problems will be no less apparent with other banks. Certainly I've known payments to be held back by Santander now and again.

jumperabv3

I am aware of these issues because I experienced them myself ... I'm currently abroad but still have my Halifax account and Halifax Clarity Card and using them from time to time. Here are suggestions how to sort out your online transactions:

1) When you buy online with your Halifax Debit Card, your IP is recorded. If this IP changes then the next transaction you would attempt has higher chances to be flagged. If your IP is the same you have higher chances of getting the transaction approved.

2) One way to keep your IP unchangeable is to use a VPN, where you get an IP address that can be fixed. Another option is to contact your Internet Service Provider and ask your IP to be static and not dynamic.

3) If you make 1-2 transactions per month with your debit card the chances of getting it blocked are very slim ... even if you use a different IP, because Halifax seems to approve transactions that are not frequent.

4) If your card gets blocked and you don't use it for 1-2 months or so, the next time you would try to use it might be successful, even if you haven't released the block ... apparantely it's being released by itself after a while.

nwc389

dollydiva wrote: »

r.

I'm told cheekily "But you don't work for Halifax do you so you don't know our Systems". Sorry...I didn't realise they were that p*ss poor.

It was evident that along with her Call Handling Time target, she had an Agenda and wanted to swiftly move towards it. So i let her with the upshot that I was given £50 credit for the inconvenience.

Oh..and the word "Sorry" was NEVER used by the Agent at ANY point in the entire conversation.

Bye Halifax...

A lot of their systems are p*ss poor since they switched to Lloyds systems a couple of years ago . A lot of the call handling agents way of talking to customers would often cause complaints to be made and if an apology was not made to you then the complaint call was not dealt with correctly .
I worked for them for 20 years and still have my accounts with them as I am happy with the accounts but I have to say I am wary of anything going wrong since all the changes came in .
Can I just ask do you use the halifax secure with your card ?

Uxb

jumperabv3 wrote: »

2) One way to keep your IP unchangeable is to use a VPN, where you get an IP address that can be fixed. Another option is to contact your Internet Service Provider and ask your IP to be static and not dynamic.

Personally I would have though that using a VPN for what should be a simple bonafide purchasing transaction would send alarm bells ringing just about everywhere at the bank/card company and at the retailer as to exactly who is making this request and why are they hiding behind a VPN.

Archi_Bald

A VPN could also be an excellent way to have your personal data nicked.

http://lifehacker.com/how-do-i-know-if-my-vpn-is-trustworthy-508866499

jumperabv3

nwc389 wrote: »

Can I just ask do you use the halifax secure with your card ?

Yes, I do.

jumperabv3

Uxb wrote: »

Personally I would have though that using a VPN for what should be a simple bonafide purchasing transaction would send alarm bells ringing just about everywhere at the bank/card company and at the retailer as to exactly who is making this request and why are they hiding behind a VPN.

No, never happened to me.

jumperabv3

Archi_Bald wrote: »

A VPN could also be an excellent way to have your personal data nicked.

http://lifehacker.com/how-do-i-know-if-my-vpn-is-trustworthy-508866499

It can be nicked by the VPN provider!
Just use a reliable one such as HMA.

nwc389

To jumperabv3 using the card abroad will flag up even with Halifax secure and your card has more chance of being blocked depending on where you are in the world .
OP did you use Halifax secure ?