Additional card holder verification texts 3 October 2022 at 9:40AM in Credit cards 13 replies 351 views

kjwr22

Hi I am additional holder to a credit card on my partner's account. It is a joint credit card basically as we both use it and pay off the balance. However I have started  having my transactions denied as the verification text goes to my partner's phone and he isn't always around for me to alert him to the fact. This seems crazy! I have card that I can't use without him verifying my purchases?  (which he has no problem with as we use the card for joint purchases, holiday etc)  Welcome to the dark ages eh?! He has phoned the company to ask for my phone number to be added but they say this is not possible because of fraud risks. Which is annoying for him but especially for me. Is this the same with all credit card companies? I am wondering if I need to switch. The alternative is to get my  own credit card but this is just a pain as we have joint banking. 

Rosco32

That is frustrating! FYI It won't be a joint account as such as there's no such thing on credit cards. You'll just be an additional card holder and repayments will be at the responsibility of your partner. If the credit card company says there is nothing they can do, which is odd, then as you suggested you might have to get your own card, either with the same bank or elsewhere.

DullGreyGuy

Its not the same for all companies... some allow secondary cardholders to add their number to their card and others dont. 

I know AmEx do allow a different number... cannot remember with Barclays and Virgin as the other two cards we use. 

Ebe_Scrooge

As above, your partner is the account holder, there's no such thing as a joint credit card.  Which card is it?  In my experience, most cards don't require a verification code for every purchase.  If you do need a code to authorise a purchase, could you not just ask him to send it over to you?  Assuming that it's only occasionally needed of course - I can see that it would be a pain if it's needed for every transaction.

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:
If you do need a code to authorise a purchase, could you not just ask him to send it over to you?  Assuming that it's only occasionally needed of course - I can see that it would be a pain if it's needed for every transaction.

Its fairly commonly required for online purchases, not every one but certainly a large proportion. 

Mrs & I share a computer at home and so she'll occasionally buy something from Amazon not noticing its logged into my account. Not an issue at all because either way the same money pays for it but it means I get the text message to verify the payment. Its fine if we are together etc but if I am in work I cannot always access my phone to forward it within the 3 minute window or whatever it is.

For us not a major problem, cancel the order and switch accounts (though oddly finding the same item again isnt always as straightforward as it should be) and reorder using her account. For the OP it'd be more difficult given its their own card thats throwing the notifications to the primary cardholder's phone 

kjwr22

It's a Lloyds Master Card. This week we are booking a holiday in Canada, I found the hotel, made the payment but husband was in a meeting with phone on silent so didn't verify the purchase so it was declined (twice!) I didn't realise they had sent  a verification code to him so was going round in circles and ended up losing the reservation. Seems crazy that I have been issued a card with his permission but can't spend on it. He is more than happy for me to get the verification texts and originally that seemed possible but now they say it isn't so was thinking we need to switch cards if other card  providers allow this

Ebe_Scrooge

I can understand your frustration.  And yes, it's more common for an online transaction than it is for, say, just buying some food from the supermarket.

But it's done for a very valid reason - end of the day, the account belongs to your partner, he's responsible for running the account, paying it off every month, etc.  So it kind of makes sense that he needs to authorise the transactions (even though obviously, you're making the purchase with his implicit permission).

Depends how much of a hassle it is, and how often it happens.  If it's a fairly regular thing them it'd be worth changing to a card that allows an additional cardholder's phone number to be registered in addition to the account holder's.

Brie

All the cards we have (M&S, Barclays, MBNA, Santander) seem to have the ability to send a text to the appropriate card holder so I'm not sure what Lloyds problem is.

fyi - if you are flying into Toronto and will have a hotel downtown DON'T take a taxi.  Look for the ground transportation desk where there will be options of a mini bus etc some of which go directly to some of the larger hotels.  Some may be free.  Others will have a charge but it will be much less than 2 of you getting a taxi to drive about 20 miles.

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

But it's done for a very valid reason - end of the day, the account belongs to your partner, he's responsible for running the account, paying it off every month, etc.  So it kind of makes sense that he needs to authorise the transactions (even though obviously, you're making the purchase with his implicit permission).

That would make sense if it applied equally to all transactions but it doesnt, its almost exclusively online transactions. It seems much more a limitation of certain bank's systems than a design feature... else why can the OP spend £10,000 in store on chip and pin without secondary authorisation from the account holder but cannot spend £5 on Amazon without it?

WillPS

Brie said:

All the cards we have (M&S, Barclays, MBNA, Santander) seem to have the ability to send a text to the appropriate card holder so I'm not sure what Lloyds problem is.

Can confirm on a Tesco Bank credit card the 3D secure prompt initally asks which cardholder before determining whether to send a text (additional cardholder) or app prompt (main cardholder).

phillw

WillPS said:
Can confirm on a Tesco Bank credit card the 3D secure prompt initally asks which cardholder before determining whether to send a text (additional cardholder) or app prompt (main cardholder).

Don't they issue a card with unique numbers and with the card holders name?

That is what John Lewis were doing.