Limit to number of daily transactions

deejaycrox

Hi all,
I have a Tesco credit card, I am the primary card holder and my wife is the secondary. The other day we both went Christmas shopping but by 4pm we were finding our cards were being declined, Tesco refused to talk to my wife (after being on hold for 20 minutes) so I phoned and was told that cards are put on stop after 12-15 transactions to prevent fraud, I pointed out that with cashless, contactless payment it was easy to reach that number of transactions in a day and that the limit was ridiculous (especially as we have paid for the car park and the bus fare contactless). They also confirmed it was that number per account, not per card, so we are effectively being penalised for having joint credit cards.

I’ve never heard of this limit before and can’t actually find it in the T&Cs despite them saying it wasn’t new.

Any one else had this?

[Deleted User]

Yes. It's not uncommon across lenders.

You won't find in the t&C's as it's a flexible policy.

Willing2Learn

deejaycrox wrote: »

They also confirmed it was that number per account, not per card, so we are effectively being penalised for having joint credit cards.

Why doesn't your wife have her own account? (as that would be a solution). It would also guarantee s75 coverage for eligible transactions.

BoGoF

Presumably if they were fraudulent you would be fuming with Tesco for letting them go through?

18cc

If tesco or any other card are going to put a limit on transactions then they should at least have the courtesy to inform you - and not in the tiny small print either

It is unacceptable that they can run the risk of leaving you stuck in the middle of nowhere with no means of paying.

That said, the perceived wisdom is to have at least two means of payment as backup in case something fails - preferably one visa and one mastercard.

18cc

Others have had this problem (USA):

"She puts me on hold for a long time. She comes back and tells me that we are allowed 25 transactions per day. I quickly count the number of transactions on line. There are 8. One is from buying coffee this morning, and the rest are transactions from the weekend that have cleared.
I ask how she got to twenty-five transactions.

She explains that the transaction limits are per BUSINESS day. Monday is the end of a single, super-long, business day. It started at 3:45 AM on Friday and will end at 3:45 am on Tuesday.
Sure enough, we are at 25 transactions if we use that method to count.

I ask the rep if she is able to adjust the transaction number for us. It’s been fine for regular daily use, but we use that account for EVERYTHING – I’d hate to be stranded somewhere if I was counting on being able to use the card.

I am put on hold a long time, and she comes back. No. There is no way to raise, or adjust the daily transaction limit. I ask to speak to a supervisor. Extended hold times ensue. A supervisor comes on. She also can not adjust this limit. She explained that this is a Mastercard rule, and that BANK can not adjust or change it.

I ask if this daily transaction limit was disclosed in the account agreement, and if so, can she please tell me where. On hold for a long time, and then she came back to tell me that “it is in one of our disclosures, but we can’t find it right now.” She assures me that she will find it and send me a copy in the mail....."


However, Barclaycard and Moneysupermarket both insist there is no daily limit on contactless (and therefore presumably chip and pin?) payments per day:

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/money-made-easy/q-and-a-all-you-need-to-know-about-contactless-payments/

meer53

If your contactless transaction is declined, just use the card with the PIN, it will reset the contactless facility. That's if the reason for the decline is contactless usage of course !

Ben8282

Are we talking about a daily limit for consecutive contactless transactions or a total llimit for all transactions?
The first makes some sense. The second does not.

born_again

Never heard of a limit on the number of card transactions that can be made in a day. Other than contactless where there is a floating limit and is reset by entering your PIN.
There is a limit on the amount you can spend in a day. Varies by provider. But is pretty high.

Time to switch to a real provider.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

This is news to me!

A limit of 15 contactless payments you can make before needing to use chip and pin, makes a bit of sense but the same for all payments is something I've never come across.

You do have the odd occasion where the bank blocks the card temporarily suspecting fraud but then unblocks it after contact, this is usually for online or overseas transactions though.

Are you sure it wasn't just a temporary block?

meer53

Some card issuers use a transaction limit, some use a cumulative spend total for contactless payments before asking for the PIN, they're all different, so saying it's a total of 15 is misleading.