Credit Card transaction declined. Full 16 digits and expiry date displayed on Void/Declined receipts

Belenus

I have a new Halifax Mastercard that I have used without any problem for two weeks. It has a credit limit of £11,000 and I have spent about £900 on it so far.

Yesterday I attempted a transaction for £33 in a long established local shop. Contactless was declined so I put the card in the terminal and input my PIN. Again the transaction was declined. I tried my PIN again in case I had made an error but again this was declined.

My wife was with me so she used her own Halifax Mastercard which is also two weeks old. Contactless worked for her card.

Thirty minutes later I used my card for a £23 transaction in ASDA. Contactless was accepted this time.

The first local shop has given me three printed receipts from the terminal. One was marked Declined, the other two marked Void.

I telephoned Halifax today to enquire why I had this problem. They could not see any record of the attempted £33 transaction. They could see the accepted ASDA £23.

While on the phone I noticed that the receipt marked Declined and one of the receipts marked Void had the full 16 digit card number and the expiry date printed on it as in: (made up examples of the card numbers)

1234 5678 5432 1234

06/27

The other receipt marked Void had only the final four digits with no expiry date printed on it as in

**** **** **** 1234

My wife's £33 receipt and my later £23 receipt from ASDA also had, as is normal, only the final 4 digits printed on it.

Halifax could offer no explanation for the reasons for the declined transactions, nor the fact that the full number and expiry date is printed on two receipts. They asked me if I wanted the card cancelled and a new card issued. I declined this but I am now rethinking that. Surely it is not normal for the full 16 digits and expiry date to be printed on a receipt.

Should I be concerned?

I check my account online more or less every day.

TadleyBaggie

This isn't really a bank caused issue, it sounds like the local shop is using a card payment processor for approval that somehow is getting it wrong. Any clue of the receipt who they are connecting through?

born_again

Declined could be down to retailer not being able to connect to their payment processer. 
In that case Halifax, would not see it at their end. if they can see it, then they know the reason. Although most front line staff will not have a clue why as they will not have access to the system that gives the reason.

Full card number, retailer not configured their system.

username

Perhaps they gave you the merchant copy for the declined receipt by mistake? The complete card PAN is printed on the merchant receipt.

Belenus

Thanks for the helpful replies.

While in the shower, where I do my best thinking, it occurred to me there are quite a few organisations who have my credit card details stored. Amazon, eBay and many others.

When using them I just have to add the 3 digit code which is not stored.

I don't think I should be concerned about the issue in my OP.

themrnf

The terminal will only print a merchant copy of a contactless declined transaction, so it's likely that they gave you that one, and merchant copies always have the full card number on them.
For one of the Chip and pin transactions, it's likely that they gave you the merchant copy of one of them by accident, and the cardholder copy for the other one.

It's worth noting that on most PDQs, a reprinted merchant receipt will also contain the full card number. The only way around this is by going into the menu settings on the PDQ machine, and generating a cardholder receipt, however this can't be done on all brands of PDQ machines.

GeoffTF

I had an Asda credit card that was sometimes declined by Asda card readers. When I rang the issuing bank, they said that they had no record of a transaction being attempted. I never had problems elsewhere. I once had prepaid card as part of a broadband deal. It was too thin, and needed some packing to work in Morrisons.