Tesco Credit Card - Contactless but constant declines/checks

philatio

Just wondering if this is just me.
Had a Tesco credit card for years but haven't really used it much for the past few, since the cashback went rubbish.
Had been on Asda but thats now closed so decided to go back to the Tesco for my everyday uses.

Its contactless.. but every (seems like) 10 or so transactions it will force me to use chip&pin by the machine either politely requesting that.. or simply saying 'DECLINED' when I swipe.
The Asda contactless did this maybe 2 or 3 times in its life. Same with a Halifax card I have and my firstdirect Debit card... but with the Tesco card its constant, and now that I'm using a card for virtually everything.. its every few days. 
I realise they must think its better for security, but it's a PITA and now I'm thinking everytime I swipe it, its gonna happen.
I'm on the verge of ditching the card completely.

Anyone else having this or is it just me? Any other card providers do the same ?

comeandgo

I thought all cards did this.  My nation wide one does it regularly.

philatio

Maybe I've just been lucky in the past then.
Asda card did it 2 or 3 times at the most, in years of use.
I remember the Halifax and fd cards did it on the very first use but never since.

Gerry1

Tesco are far more paranoid than most.  At Sainsbury's I've had a Random Scan using Smart Shop about twice in the four or five years it's been running.  At Tesco, it does a Random Scan about every third of fourth trip.  I've had their cards for over 16 years, you'd think by now they would have realised I'm not a thief.

No idea about Contactless, I refuse to have a card that anyone use at £45 a pop so I've disabled it with a hole punch !

MalMonroe

My HSBC card started doing that for no reason too and it's scary when it says 'declined' because then you panic and start thinking, 'where's my money gone?!'  I don't have much to start with, so when the card started playing up it didn't do my heart much good . . 

Anyway, I reported it to the bank and they said, 'ooops sorry' and sent me a new card. Problem solved. 

PRAISETHESUN

It's pretty standard to be asked to use Chip and PIN every so often - some banks ask for it less often than others. For me personally my Tesco CC almost never asks me to enter my PIN, but that might be because I shop at the same store every week and don't really use that card for much else. As above however my Nationwide card on the other hand asks for my PIN all the bloody time, to the point where I pretty much just default to Chip and PIN from the get-go now. 

RobM99

Could it be that the chip itself needs a clean?

wiseonesomeofthetime

A lot of banks have now started doing this imo.

I have a number of debit and credit cards and, after so many uses or so much spend via contactless authorisation, they now "reset" via chip & PIN.

This is why I use GooglePay more now than ever before. The "limit" imposed by the card providers for re-authorisation do not apply to mobile wallet transactions.

Could be yours is the same.

I do have a Tesco Credit Card, however, do not use it over others, currently, so cannot comment directly on the OP's experience. Also, it does not link to GooglePay, so that avenue will not be open to OP either unfortunately.

Shakin_Steve

My monzo card needs chip and pin after £100 on contactless, the text message you get after each spend tells you to use to use chip and pin for your next purchase. You can check how much left before you reach £100 in the app. Can be a bit of a pain.

born_again

philatio said:

Just wondering if this is just me.
Had a Tesco credit card for years but haven't really used it much for the past few, since the cashback went rubbish.
Had been on Asda but thats now closed so decided to go back to the Tesco for my everyday uses.

Its contactless.. but every (seems like) 10 or so transactions it will force me to use chip&pin by the machine either politely requesting that.. or simply saying 'DECLINED' when I swipe.
The Asda contactless did this maybe 2 or 3 times in its life. Same with a Halifax card I have and my firstdirect Debit card... but with the Tesco card its constant, and now that I'm using a card for virtually everything.. its every few days. 
I realise they must think its better for security, but it's a PITA and now I'm thinking everytime I swipe it, its gonna happen.
I'm on the verge of ditching the card completely.

Anyone else having this or is it just me? Any other card providers do the same ?

Standard practise.
Anyone that says theirs do not, is making a chip & pin trans that is resetting it. Atm will count.

If you get the decline msg, then just make transaction via C&P

Fingerbobs

born_again said:

philatio said:

Just wondering if this is just me.
Had a Tesco credit card for years but haven't really used it much for the past few, since the cashback went rubbish.
Had been on Asda but thats now closed so decided to go back to the Tesco for my everyday uses.

Its contactless.. but every (seems like) 10 or so transactions it will force me to use chip&pin by the machine either politely requesting that.. or simply saying 'DECLINED' when I swipe.
The Asda contactless did this maybe 2 or 3 times in its life. Same with a Halifax card I have and my firstdirect Debit card... but with the Tesco card its constant, and now that I'm using a card for virtually everything.. its every few days. 
I realise they must think its better for security, but it's a PITA and now I'm thinking everytime I swipe it, its gonna happen.
I'm on the verge of ditching the card completely.

Anyone else having this or is it just me? Any other card providers do the same ?

Standard practise.
Anyone that says theirs do not, is making a chip & pin trans that is resetting it. Atm will count.

If you get the decline msg, then just make transaction via C&P

Cardholder-not-present transactions also reset it in my experience.