Sainsbury's Credit Card - what an awful mess

71peyman71

I am writing this to vent some frustration and see if anyone has had a similar experience who can perhaps provide some tips.

I recently took out a Sainsbury's credit card with 24 month 0% on purchases in order to cover the costs of a planned trip at the end of May. 
The card arrived last week and once activated I tried to make a couple of purchases for items I need to take with me. The purchases are relatively expensive items but well within the credit limit I have been given. But surprisingly, the purchases were declined and my card was blocked. 
I then received a call from Sainsbury's fraud prevention team, stayed on the line for half an hour before it cut out. 
I called the customer service and was told that my card was blocked because I was making expensive purchases and the case is with the specialist team who will contact me in the coming week!

Now I am left furious because it totally ruins my plans. 
May be I have not understood the purpose of taking out a credit card, but I always thought people do so in order to spend on it? Or is there another reason I am not aware of? 
What is the point of giving someone a credit card with a large credit limit and then blocking them when they make a purchase? I asked Sainsbury's customer service this question and the poor guy could just apologise. It's not his fault. 

What's more frustrating is that when I entered the card details to purchase the items I was sent a code to my phone, which only I can access with my finger print and entered my email address registered on the account. So it was clearly me making the purchase. Does this verification step work or not? If it works why block the purchase? If it doesn't then why does it exist?

I have never had this issue with any other credit card company (and I have had a few). I have a 100% credit rating. I always make my payments on time. 

It's now too late to apply for another card because it won't come on time to cover the cost of my trip. Basically Sainsbury's have ruined it for me and there is nothing I can do.

Rant over!

[Deleted User]

71peyman71 said:

May be I have not understood the purpose of taking out a credit card, but I always thought people do so in order to spend on it? Or is there another reason I am not aware of? 

It's just the fraud aspect you're not aware of, which was triggered by the instant high value transaction and/or type of transaction.

It's very early to say that Sainsbury's have ruined your plans, unless you have left it all very last minute. The likelihood is that the block will be removed in the next day or so.

born_again

New card. large purchases, even with  2FA codes. Still likely to trigger a security check. Could also be that the retailer you use are fraudsters targets.

Once you have spoken to security team & block lifted they should go through.