Stolen barclaycard £1400 - help!

el.char123

My partner had his credit card stolen on New Year's Eve 2015. He didn't realise that night as wasn't spending any money on his card but received texts the following morning from barclaycard saying they suspect fraudulent activity and asking him if he made any of the transactions. They totalled £1200! He rang the bank straight away and they flagged up the payments. After months and months of hounding the bank nothing ever got done. He asked countless times to speak to the manage of whom would never call when he said he would and was always unavailable. My partner had to use hours of holidaynin order to sit on hold in these phone calls. The furthest we ever got was to be told they couldn't tell exactly where the card was used but it was somewhere in Lowestoft miles from where my partner had been that night. They have also been unable to identify if it was his pin that was used or a false signature. After being told to let them investigate it and they would be in touch, he rang again to be told they had closed the case as assumed he had accepted liability! It became clear that they weren't going to do anything about it. We wrote into money magazines but never heard anything back. We contacted the financial ombudsman months ago now who haven't managed to so far get any further either... we just keep being told to let them investigate things and that they are waiting to hear back from the bank but this is going on a year now and we have had to pay interest every month whilst saving for our wedding in September!! We have just opened a balance transfer card with. 0% interest rate after trawling your website so at least that will put a holt on the interest growing the debt for now! Can you recommend what we should do or any way to get our money back or the balance cleared from his card? Any help much appreciated!!

Ben8282

Nothing above conforms to what would have been expected in such cases. Of course they can tell if the transaction was chip/pin or signature (signature in the UK on 31st Dec 2015 highly unlikely by the way). Of course they know where the card was used and so do you because if you have been paying interest on these transactions for a year as you say then they must have appeared on a statement and therefore you can see who the merchant was.
So what happened during the 'months and months' of hounding the bank. What did they actually say? Have you actually disputed the transactions? What was the actual final response given for rejecting the dispute?
I am actually quite curious as to what could have been purchased late at night on New Year's Eve in Lowestoft which cost £1400 .... Some expensive champagne in a nightclub to see in the new year perhaps?

boo_star

Ben8282 wrote: »

Nothing above conforms to what would have been expected in such cases. Of course they can tell if the transaction was chip/pin or signature (signature I the UK on 31st Dec 2015 highly unlikely by the way). Of course they know where they card was used and so do you because if you have been paying interest on these transactions for a year as you say then they must have appeared on a statement and therefore you can see who the merchant was.
So what happened during the 'months and months' of hounding the bank. What did they actually say? Have you actually disputed the transactions? What was the actual final response given for rejecting the dispute?

Agreed, this makes no sense as both an employee who had customers claim fraud and more recently, a fraud victim.

I'd be incensed if my CC provider had assumed I'd accepted liability and I wouldn't have stopped contacting them until I had a final response, at which point I'd have been opening a case with the FOS.

jonesMUFCforever

Personally I don't believe a word of it but am willing to change my mind if the first time poster adds a link so we can see the letters sent to ''money magazines''.
Sorry OP but it is just too unbelievable.

eset12345

were you with your partner on that night? if not a more likely scinario is that he was entertaining someone else in Lowestoft.

but they will know exactly where it was used, even down to the terminal / till it was used on, and if the merchant keeps til user data they can be supplied with the person who actually served the person who used the card.

secondly, the pin / signature issue, it's highly improbably that a signature would be used, because it's rarely allowed to be for domestic cards, ie our chip and pin cards and if a signature was used, the retailer takes on the liability for fraud, so the card company would have immediately refunded you in such a case.

thirdly, the length of time it's gone on for, it wouldn't take that long to investigate any issues, it would have been wrapped up in about 30 days, or 60 at the most.

cooltt

el.char123 wrote: »

My partner had his credit card stolen on New Year's Eve 2015. Any help much appreciated!!

He's the best help you'll ever get. Your partner is a lying little sh*t.

bris

Sounds like you are being strung along, just paying the interest alone assumes guit as this gets put on hold during an investigation.


As already said the CC knows exactly if chip and pin or signature was used. The thing with the signature means any retailer would not allow it as it's instant charge back once disputed, which leaves chip and pin. The CC knows what was used.

pvt

Doesn't add up.

If Burkleys texted to say they suspected fraudulent use, that indicates it wasn't Chip and PIN. As the banks steadfastly maintain C&P is infallible, why would they call about C&P transactions.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking your partner is stringing you along with excuses that don't add up.

el.char123

Posted on here as was advised someone may be able to help but I really don't appreciate you just insulting someone you don't even know! Of course we had to pay interest so not to get a black mark on our credit score as we are hoping to buy a house in the near future so we can't afford to do that. They know it was a company called EA promotions but said lots of the business in Lowestoft use that company and so they can't trace exactly where it was used. That's all it says on the statements is EA promotions. I've tried googling but nothing. All the bank ever say is that they're looking into into which they aren't doing. Same with the financial ombudsman. They haven't been able to give us any more information despite calling every day.

meer53

Your post doesn't make sense which is why people are doubting your story. Sounds to me like Barclays are holding your OH liable as he has used the merchant before. EA Promotions is a lap dancing club called Fallen Angels in Lowestoft. It all makes sense now. It took me 3 seconds to find this out on Google, if your partner hasn't told you this, then you have an awkward conversation coming up.

Tigsteroonie

And curiously E A Promotions Ltd (based in Great Yarmouth, trading as Fallen Angels in Yarmouth) was only incorporated as a company on 01/02/2016. Were they even trading on NYE? Possibly as an unregistered sole trader or partnership, I guess.