If I report a fraudulent transaction to Halifax, will they cancel my credit card?

DullGreyGuy

Ryan_Holden said:

I have no idea why you wouldn't want your card cancelled anyway, if it's repeatedly attacked with fraudulent transactions a new card would solve the issue. Rather suck up a few days of little spending that leave yourself liable to payments because of being careless with the banks money.

I dont believe he OP hasnt said how long they are abroad for, a "few days of little spending" may be a week or a month. Our last significant trip was for 6 months. Mrs lost her purse in the first week of being there, couldnt have gone the next 25 weeks of her just "spending litte".

Clearly a lesson in not traveling with just one card, just as the Mrs' was a lesson in not taking all your cards out with you at the same time. With some banks the newly issued card is available immediately via apps so can be added to ApplePay/GooglePay etc which can work for some transactions (depending on the country you are in) but less so for cash.

AmEx was the only company willing to send the card directly to us as a priority overseas, Starling said it would but it'd be a couple of weeks and cost £35, Natwest said they would but she'd have to change her address to the place we were staying, get the card, then change the address back again which just felt like a minefield of future problems 

Ryan_Holden

DullGreyGuy said:

Ryan_Holden said:

I have no idea why you wouldn't want your card cancelled anyway, if it's repeatedly attacked with fraudulent transactions a new card would solve the issue. Rather suck up a few days of little spending that leave yourself liable to payments because of being careless with the banks money.

I dont believe he OP hasnt said how long they are abroad for, a "few days of little spending" may be a week or a month.  

You're right, they didn't, but they did say

"I try to mitigate this risk by ensuring I carry a substantial amount of cash, both in local currency and in USD"

The point I'm making is risk management. The OP is acting like the credit card is theirs, when the available balance on the credit card isn't the OP's, it's Halifax's. They have a duty under their terms and conditions to report fraudulent activity as soon as possible, it may even say immediately.

If they don't, they're exposing Halifax to risk just to save themselves some perceived inconvenience and Halifax may very well turn around and say you owe us the balance now because you were reckless.

I'm glad they've seen sense, reported it and had it stopped.

Gary_Laurus

penners324 said:

Sounds like your card has been cloned wherever you are in the world.

Opening a Chase or Starling account and using GPay or ApplePay sounds prudent. Both doable while overseas 

Thank you for the information. I was not aware that those services were accessible to UK citizens. It appears to be an excellent arrangement. I was previously considering using Revolut for my needs.

Gary_Laurus

Wonka_2 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Do you not have any other cards at all?   You should never leave yourself reliant on a single payment method, especially when out of the country.

I wouldn't delay reporting it. Take some cash out first if need be.

The risk is this may trigger more warnings to card provider and lead to card being retained and no cash (I speak from experience)

I appreciate the information you've provided. I neglected to inquire earlier: how did you successfully resolve that situation? I'm keen to learn from this experience.

Gary_Laurus

sausage_time said:

Hi @Gary_Laurus you must always have a backup card especially when travel abroad.  Even using a "vanilla" 3% FX hit card would likely be less impactful than curtailing a trip.  Did you really travel home before reporting to Halifax?  That delay strikes as very risky - but good if this was resolved.

Yes unfortunately had to travel back, reported, was refunded/charged back in less than a day.

Gary_Laurus

DullGreyGuy said:

Ryan_Holden said:

I have no idea why you wouldn't want your card cancelled anyway, if it's repeatedly attacked with fraudulent transactions a new card would solve the issue. Rather suck up a few days of little spending that leave yourself liable to payments because of being careless with the banks money.

I dont believe he OP hasnt said how long they are abroad for, a "few days of little spending" may be a week or a month. Our last significant trip was for 6 months. Mrs lost her purse in the first week of being there, couldnt have gone the next 25 weeks of her just "spending litte".

Clearly a lesson in not traveling with just one card, just as the Mrs' was a lesson in not taking all your cards out with you at the same time. With some banks the newly issued card is available immediately via apps so can be added to ApplePay/GooglePay etc which can work for some transactions (depending on the country you are in) but less so for cash.

AmEx was the only company willing to send the card directly to us as a priority overseas, Starling said it would but it'd be a couple of weeks and cost £35, Natwest said they would but she'd have to change her address to the place we were staying, get the card, then change the address back again which just felt like a minefield of future problems 

2 months, unfortunately ended up being 10 days  
absolute hate the single point of failure that comes with only 1 card
Thanks so much for the information about Amex, time to use that neglected card, I thought they would be pretty useless at travel spending. 

DullGreyGuy

Gary_Laurus said:
Thanks so much for the information about Amex, time to use that neglected card, I thought they would be pretty useless at travel spending. 

Depends in part which card you have and how you define useful... its not widely accepted (but is improving thanks to Zettle etc) and most carry fees for foreign currency transactions. So on certain fronts its not the most useful however their service tends to be much better (possibly where those fees are going to) and hence for them it was a basic thing to do to offer a priority replacement overseas.

born_again

You have to remember that some banks will not send a card to a hotel oversea's, it needs to be a actual residence, due to security risks.

DullGreyGuy

born_again said:

You have to remember that some banks will not send a card to a hotel oversea's, it needs to be a actual residence, due to security risks.

Natwest said they would, but you had to do a change of address to the hotel room, wait for the card to arrive, then do a change of address back. To me that was just going to cause problems down the line when you apply for another product and the CRA returns back an associated overseas address and a termination of living at your current address for 1 month etc. 

It also seemed a much bigger security risk to have potentially multiple things being sent to the hotel room, esp things you arent expecting, than just getting the card sent there. 

born_again

The reason this has to be done is it is the way the card ordering system works. You can only order to the address on system. As it's only on a internal system, should not effect CRA & change of address.