&MORE card declined for 'security' purposes

Tirian

When trying to pay my eBay fees today, my M&S card was declined, despite having almost £1000 available credit. When I called to speak to them, they said that it was to carry out a random check to make sure the transactions were made by me.

This annoyed me a great deal - not because they are checking the transactions .. that is fine. But I'm very annoyed that they blocked the card rather than just calling me up. What's the point in that? Especially as it is just for a 'random' check! It feel that this is a very shabby way for them to treat a good customer (I've never missed a payment, and use the card a lot)

swayze

Tirian wrote: »

When trying to pay my eBay fees today, my M&S card was declined, despite having almost £1000 available credit. When I called to speak to them, they said that it was to carry out a random check to make sure the transactions were made by me.

This annoyed me a great deal - not because they are checking the transactions .. that is fine. But I'm very annoyed that they blocked the card rather than just calling me up. What's the point in that? Especially as it is just for a 'random' check! It feel that this is a very shabby way for them to treat a good customer (I've never missed a payment, and use the card a lot)

As far am I am aware this can happen with all credit cards. Some websites/merchants are deemed to have a higher proportion of fraudlent activity. Hence more likely that an automatic block will occur. You can't expect them to keep an eye on over 3 million accounts hence why an automatic system is in place to flag up any suspicious activity and for extra security.

jonesMUFCforever

How does the OP know that his credit card company did not try and phone him?

Lavendyr

They shouldn't outright decline it if it was just a random security check though, I would have thought. I've worked in retail and we used to have this happen, often on higher-than-average transactions but sometimes on smaller ones too. We had to call the merchants and obtain authorisation for the transaction, but once this was done we could process the transaction - it wasn't out-and-out blocked. Perhaps things have changed since then (that was about 6 years ago), though, especially on card-not-present transactions.

MarkyMarkD

You can't expect them to get PayPal to call them up in relation to a "card not present" transaction. They couldn't check anything extra anyway by doing so.

Declining the transaction doesn't really cause any hardship as you can do it again once they've been reassured.

marksandsparksgal

I can see both sides in this.

The OP has a bit of a right to be annoyed, other companies (e.g. Tesco Personal Finance) call straight after to check it's you. My mum had that happen with her M&S card too when trying to book some tickets and if it's never happened before you think they've stopped the card.

On the other hand, it's a pain in the neck, especially if it had been abroad or in an emergency.

But hey ho, that's life!

gt94sss2

Its worth pointing out that many websites can't cope with random security checks or a 'please call us to confirm transaction' type reply from card issuers - hence they simply say a card has been 'declined' - even if it hasn't..

Regards
Sunil

Tirian

ejones999 wrote: »

How does the OP know that his credit card company did not try and phone him?

How do you usually tell that someone has not tried to call you? Personally I do it by logical inference from the fact that the phone has not rung ...