Halifax Debit Card Question

stu146

Hi,
I got a Halifax current account that I signed up for a few weeks ago after being tempted across from Metro Bank by the £125 switching offer.

Its a standard current account with a £250 planned overdraft and personalised design contactless debit card (Starting 4462 91)

Question is do I have an online or offline debit card? Everything originally pointed towards it being offline at first, but then I noticed a few things:

I tried to use it on a train to buy a ticket and the reader come back with 'NOT AUTHORISED - REMOVE CARD' and then I used the contactless feature on my card at Wilko today and the transaction displayed in my list of pending transactions right away, which again isn't a trait of offline visa contactless.

I went in branch and they didn't have a clue what I was talking about, even after explaining the different authorization methods, so I called up. The best answer they could give is 'If it isn't Visa Electron you can use it anywhere' which again certainly isn't true.

I'm going to be a little hacked off if they have given me an online card, which it is starting to look that way, or at least they have some weird hybrid card system, as I travel a lot and the freedom to use my card anywhere is quite important to me. And no doubt if they have they wont allow me to switch back to Metro Bank otherwise everyone would just go in then back out with the free £125 they pay all the new customers, right?

Thanks in advance to anyone who may have advice on the matter

(P.S. As a bonus question, I recently signed up to Tesco Bank for a credit card to do a 0% Interest BT from Vanquis. Got that today, activated it and went to change my PIN but the ATM spat it back out saying unauthorised usage. Any idea what this means before I call them up? Maybe I am missing something pretty obvious)

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

I have the same as you. A personalised card 4462 91XX XXXX XXXX and mine appears to work fine. I think perhaps you need to talk with someone higher up at Halifax.

pvt

So the only transaction that you've had refused is the one on the train, which was obviously a portable card reader of some kind. Is it possible the simple explanation is that card reader was unable to get a signal to authorise the transaction at that time?

Nasqueron

I had a halifax current account up until Feb this year - for the best par of 20 years - had the visa debit card (was previously switch and something else iirc) - I never had any issues buying anything at any shop/train station/portable card reader/ebay/paypal etc etc in the UK or taking out cash abroad

tripled

pvt wrote: »

So the only transaction that you've had refused is the one on the train, which was obviously a portable card reader of some kind. Is it possible the simple explanation is that card reader was unable to get a signal to authorise the transaction at that time?

That shouldn't be an issue if it's an offline card. However I don't know a lot about train ticket machines, someone in the public transport forum would likely be able to shed more light on it.

Toe-Jam

Have you thought of the possibility that it is the contactless terminal that was used and not a conspiracy by Halifax ?

Online contactless cards do exist, I have one on my nationwide account.

However halifax 446291 is an offline card. If you use it in Tescos for a small amount you should see that the funds don't appear in your pending transactions immediately.

Likewise contactless in McDonalds is offline and if you have an online card it will display "Authorising" on the terminal and take 3 seconds or so, as apposed to Offline just saying "Approved" and going through.

stu146

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Have you thought of the possibility that it is the contactless terminal that was used and not a conspiracy by Halifax ?

Online contactless cards do exist, I have one on my nationwide account.

However halifax 446291 is an offline card. If you use it in Tescos for a small amount you should see that the funds don't appear in your pending transactions immediately.

Likewise contactless in McDonalds is offline and if you have an online card it will display "Authorising" on the terminal and take 3 seconds or so, as apposed to Offline just saying "Approved" and going through.

I should mention that I Had an offline contactless card from Metro Bank, and for example in Wilko, contactless payments there (and anywhere else) would not show up as a pending transaction, and just go straight to my statement 2-3 days later. Also in McDonald's payments didn't come out straight away even if I used chip and PIN. But its all showing straight away on this Halifax card. Everything is forced to authorize before it can go through... Which makes no sense. If they trust me with an overdraft and such why wouldn't I be able to get a full service offline card? Also in regards to Tesco (who have a sign up on the window saying they no longer take Electron) no matter what I buy, be it a drink for 99p or a £80 grocery shop it again comes straight out, though again with my old card it previously did not.

<I Tried to upload a screenshot of pending transactions to show you all here, but it says I am not allowed to as a new user>

In regards to another person's reply about the card reader on the train, someone else with a golden colored maestro card (didn't catch what bank) managed to buy a ticket sat across from me. So it was definitely working.

Does anyone know what HBOS actually call their different card types so I can try and ask for the right thing? As apparently offline and online means nothing to them. All they have been able to tell me is its showing on their system as a '2 in 1 visa debit'

Toe-Jam

stu146 wrote: »

I should mention that I Had an offline contactless card from Metro Bank, and for example in Wilko, contactless payments there (and anywhere else) would not show up as a pending transaction, and just go straight to my statement 2-3 days later. Also in McDonald's payments didn't come out straight away even if I used chip and PIN. But its all showing straight away on this Halifax card. Everything is forced to authorize before it can go through... Which makes no sense. If they trust me with an overdraft and such why wouldn't I be able to get a full service offline card? Also in regards to Tesco (who have a sign up on the window saying they no longer take Electron) no matter what I buy, be it a drink for 99p or a £80 grocery shop it again comes straight out, though again with my old card it previously did not.

<I Tried to upload a screenshot of pending transactions to show you all here, but it says I am not allowed to as a new user>

In regards to another person's reply about the card reader on the train, someone else with a golden colored maestro card (didn't catch what bank) managed to buy a ticket sat across from me. So it was definitely working.

Does anyone know what HBOS actually call their different card types so I can try and ask for the right thing? As apparently offline and online means nothing to them. All they have been able to tell me is its showing on their system as a '2 in 1 visa debit'

Very odd indeed. I have a halifax reward account, and they won't give me an overdraft but my contactless card hardly every authorises when I use it, Never in tesco and never when I use contactless. It does occasionally decline contactless and make me use chip and pin instead, but that is normal practice for contactless cards.

reclusive46

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Very odd indeed. I have a halifax reward account, and they won't give me an overdraft but my contactless card hardly every authorises when I use it, Never in tesco and never when I use contactless. It does occasionally decline contactless and make me use chip and pin instead, but that is normal practice for contactless cards.

There was some chatter of the banks switching to online contactless in preparation for the higher £30 limit for transactions of the £20 to £30 value. Its possible that some banks like Halifax have decided to use online contactless for all their transactions on new cards (Unless online is not possible).

The only real way to know if the card is an offline card is to buy a magnetic stripe reader, swipe the card into a word document and check the service card.

Toe-Jam

I found this article about contactless.

It seems Lloyds group were looking into online contactless in January, So perhaps they have implemented that now and your card is one of the new online ones.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/bank-accounts/11340025/Why-have-I-been-turned-down-for-a-contactless-payment-card.html

It also says that Santander issue contactless cards to all customers , which i know is not accurate,(just called)

stu146

Right... So if Halifax have issued me with an online contactless card where exactly do I stand in regards to getting an offline one?

My credit file should be perfect. I have never had a single missed, or even late payment EVER, and have built up a good history over the years paying credit cards, phone contracts etc. And obviously that shows, as I was accepted for credit cards with pretty generous limits, and I have been accepted by the Halifax directly for an overdraft facility. So even if they do want to check me I should be fine for one. Plus the fact that Metro Bank previously gave me one.

So what exactly do I need to ask the Halifax for when I call up to get the right card? Or alternatively is it a simple case of no I will never get one so I have to either plan to pay cash on the train in future or move back to my old bank?