Beware automatic fraud checks if going abroad, especially on a cruise

rufford155

          On the 17th June I boarded the Sky Princess cruise ship at Southampton.

           I had pre-registered my Halifax credit card to pay my account automatically at the end of the cruise, which is normal practice.

          Also, I had made several payments with that card to Princess Cruises in the weeks prior to the cruise for excursions, etc.

          On 19th June, the first day that any network was available, in port at Bergen, I received this text from Halifax :-

          Please be aware that you need to respond or we’ll decline future card payments. Halifax has noticed your Halifax credit card was used at SKY PRINCESS for £0.70. This payment was declined. If this was you reply YES, otherwise reply NO.

          The same morning I received a letter from the ship reception saying my card was declined and that I needed to make by some means a deposit of $600 or I would be unable to purchase anything more onboard – and indeed later a small shop purchase was refused.

          Needless to say, this was not only greatly inconvenient but massively embarrassing.

          It is normal practice for a cruise ship to confirm validity of a registered card early in the cruise and Halifax must surely be well aware of this.

          To send such a text to a customer they ought to realise is abroad and on a ship at sea seems to me to be the height of idiocy.

          Bear in mind also that if roaming was not enabled, I could never have received that text.

          I fully understand that they need to have fraud prevention measures in place, but I contend that their system is seriously flawed.

          Being fully automated and computerised, it is clearly not capable of making the checks and balances that a human would logically make.

          It is the result of poor, incomplete programming which can then lead to an illogical and unfair outcome such as I have suffered from.

          My complaint, as expected, has fallen on fairly deaf ears and I have been given a miserly £40 compensation.

          But I have argued strongly that it not really about money, rather that I want them to admit that their fraud checks are imperfect, therefore to rethink their methods and to re-program their system to properly take into account some sensible additional background checks to prevent this happening in future.

          I believe this matter is worthy of wider publicity because it is probably replicated across all banks and is likely to affect very many people.

          It is indeed a pity that we are all subservient to unthinking, error prone machines!

          Halifax informs me that these fraud checks are completely random and could still occur even if you have informed them of your travel plans (which they did ask you to do years ago).

          Clearly there is no end to their stupidity !

daivid

I think you expect too much, I realise not receiving the notification would have made things harder to sort but it is not down to your bank to ensure your phone is receiving texts nor to track your whereabouts (I think most would find this more alarming than a rejected transaction). I suspect some of the blame is also with the ship; if their card machines were live linked then you would have had a payment rejected prompting you to contact the bank however the cruse company only realised retrospectively there was an issue. Halifax have given you £40 for the inconvenience which to me seems generous - you haven’t detailed any material losses, perhaps some transaction fees from using a less advantageous card? Your great inconvenience and embarrassment is unfortunate, though others may have sorted it all without a second thought.

Halifax has been my main bank and CC card provider for 18 years, in all that time they've correctly stopped fraudulent transactions twice (card cloning I think) with no failures to detect fraudulent activity, and mis flagged 2 transactions, as I've used the card extensively online and abroad I don't think their system has worked too badly.

daveyjp

The only time I have had a foreign transaction issue with a credit card was about 12 years ago, that was also on a Princess cruise.

Payment by Santander credit card for our bill wouldn't be accepted and finding answers to the security questions regarding recent purchases and balances wasn't as easy as it is now.  There were no smart phones or apps to check and all paperwork was of course at home.  

[Deleted User]

Fraud checks are pretty normal when used in locations or patterns that don't fit your norm or are high risk. You pretty much need to suck it up or vote with your feet.

These companies will simply want you to fix that card or provide another working card. 

rufford155

david : They had no need to track my phone. My point is that a simple check of previous transactions would have revealed several payments to the cruise line and a purchase of petrol in Southampton the day before. Obvious to anybody except a dumb machine that I was going on a Princess ship! If the computer check is unable to base a decision on looking at recent history, then it is not fit for purpose.

mr_stripey

what a bizarre complaint. Been a few on here this week

Or maybe just a humble brag?

born_again

rufford155 said:

david : They had no need to track my phone. My point is that a simple check of previous transactions would have revealed several payments to the cruise line and a purchase of petrol in Southampton the day before. Obvious to anybody except a dumb machine that I was going on a Princess ship! If the computer check is unable to base a decision on looking at recent history, then it is not fit for purpose.

Security systems DO NOT look at your spending. They look at known fraud patterns.

Computers are far from DUMB, but the cost of building & running a system that monitors & checks every single transactions a customer makes & then checks against previous spending will be far beyond the costs of affordability.

Just because you bought petrol where you were departing from may not tie in with the location of the cruise ships location.
From what you are saying. 100% of lost card fraud would never be picked up. As it is in the area a customer was & odds on using the same retailers.

rufford155

"....far beyond the costs of affordability" ?
Surely not in this day and age !
Computers are as dumb, or not, as the programmers - GIGO remember.
It also happened to me years ago in IKEA, where there was no signal, despite the fact I had used the card in the same shop twice in the previous month.
Supposedly someone stole my card and then used it in exactly the same place a few days later !
What sort of sensible fraud check is that ?
A fraud check that doesn't look at previous spending patterns is in no way fit for purpose.

Jonboy_1984

For the in-laws last year we registered a card and it did the check online a few days before their P&O cruise, and at that point it said if you do nothing it will be debited at the end of the cruise or visit reception to pay on a different card.

Sounds like the cruise company not keeping up with the times…

rufford155

Thanks for that Jonboy, very interesting.
It does make more sense for the cruise line to check the card before sailing.
I might forward a complaint and suggestion to Princess now.

rufford155

I did exactly that - made a polite suggestion to Princess cruises but I've had absolutely no comment back.
Surprise, surprise !
What I have learnt over years of experience with banks and other institutions is that IT departments are never, ever in the wrong !