Can I escalate this? (Bus/card issue)

jemmawrites

I had been using the first bus tap on/off with my bank card with no issues for months when all of a sudden my card was declined, I used my googlepay (same bank account as the card) and that worked fine. There was money in the account and I had been able to use it both contactless and chip n pin elsewhere.
I contacted first and was told my card is on the decline list as a payment had been declined and my bank had covered it and when my bank recovers the £1.40 they would unblock my card.
I spoke to my bank who confirmed this wasnt the case,no payment had been declined and I had never gone into my overdraft nor was I owe them any money.
I went back to first with the screenshots as proof and they again replied with there's nothing we can do it's you bank who have to fix this.
Again I reached out to tsb who provided written proof there's no problem with the card and I am not owe anyone anything the bank has no control over their block list and there's no reason my card should be declined.
This was 4 weeks ago and I'm now being ignored by first,I sent the proof again and asked for my card to be unblocked and if it wasn't I'd take my complaint higher. They have not replied at all. I need to get the bus to and from work for that last month I've been using another bus company and having to walk 15 mins extra each way, not looking forward to that when it's snowing!
Im annoyed that I'm being ignored. 
My question is,can I take this further and if so how? Who would I contact about it?
Any advice greatly appreciated 👍

Alderbank

To simplify:
You used to be able to use your TSB card to pay contactless on your regular bus journey.
Your TSB card is no longer accepted by the bus company.

You ask 'Can I take this further?'

Consumer rights legislation does not cover means of payment.

You have no general right to demand that a provider of goods or services must accept any specific method of payment. For example, some merchants have a list of which cards they will accept. Some will not accept cards of eg. less than £5.
Some don't take credit cards. Some are cash only. Some won't accept bags of coins. Some won't take Scottish banknotes or Euros.
Unless the reason is discrimination against a protected group all these are quite legal.

I assume that you don't have another payment card from a different bank, and the bus no longer accepts cash?

I think your options might be to buy a season ticket or open a second account with another bank such as Starling. Having an alternative payment card in case of loss, network failure, etc. can be a sensible idea.

jemmawrites

Alderbank said:

To simplify:
You used to be able to use your TSB card to pay contactless on your regular bus journey.
Your TSB card is no longer accepted by the bus company.

You ask 'Can I take this further?'

Consumer rights legislation does not cover means of payment.

You have no general right to demand that a provider of goods or services must accept any specific method of payment. For example, some merchants have a list of which cards they will accept. Some will not accept cards of eg. less than £5.
Some don't take credit cards. Some are cash only. Some won't accept bags of coins. Some won't take Scottish banknotes or Euros.
Unless the reason is discrimination against a protected group all these are quite legal.

I assume that you don't have another payment card from a different bank, and the bus no longer accepts cash?

I think your options might be to buy a season ticket or open a second account with another bank such as Starling. Having an alternative payment card in case of loss, network failure, etc. can be a sensible idea.

Hi, Thanks for your reply, I don't have any accounts from another bank and I don't think I should have to open a new account with a new bank just to use the bus, what's to stop them doing this to a new card I get or even from doing the same thing to other people. I completely understand it's not illegal but it's certainly not fair to block someone's card for no reason despite having proof of that 🤷

la531983

To be fair its quite standard advice on here to tell people to ensure they have at least two accounts, what would you do for money if TSB decided to freeze your account for weeks for fraud checks?
There are numerous threads on here where this exact thing has happened to people and they are panicking they have no access to money.

Swallow your pride and open a 2nd account. 

user1977

jemmawrites said:

Alderbank said:

To simplify:
You used to be able to use your TSB card to pay contactless on your regular bus journey.
Your TSB card is no longer accepted by the bus company.

You ask 'Can I take this further?'

Consumer rights legislation does not cover means of payment.

You have no general right to demand that a provider of goods or services must accept any specific method of payment. For example, some merchants have a list of which cards they will accept. Some will not accept cards of eg. less than £5.
Some don't take credit cards. Some are cash only. Some won't accept bags of coins. Some won't take Scottish banknotes or Euros.
Unless the reason is discrimination against a protected group all these are quite legal.

I assume that you don't have another payment card from a different bank, and the bus no longer accepts cash?

I think your options might be to buy a season ticket or open a second account with another bank such as Starling. Having an alternative payment card in case of loss, network failure, etc. can be a sensible idea.

I don't think I should have to open a new account with a new bank just to use the bus

But it's probably the simplest solution (or you get a new card from the same bank). Up to you if you fancy banging your head against a wall.

eskbanker

jemmawrites said:

I contacted first and was told my card is on the decline list as a payment had been declined and my bank had covered it and when my bank recovers the £1.40 they would unblock my card.

[...]

I went back to first with the screenshots as proof and they again replied with there's nothing we can do it's you bank who have to fix this.

This makes no sense to me - if there's any such 'decline list' then it must be First who are managing it, and there's no such process that I'm aware of for a bank to update it.  There used to be some sort of list of invalid cards circulated by card companies, that was used to advise retailers of stolen cards, but I'd have thought its use would have fallen by the wayside when online authorisation is now the norm, which in turn negates any need for a 'decline list'.

There are limits that require cards to be PIN-verified sometimes rather than always being used contactlessly, but I'm not sure if transport companies have some sort of exemption, when they have no such PIN facilities - do you use the PIN on your card sometimes?

You could perhaps try a Subject Access Request to First to ascertain what data they hold about you and what their processes are for keeping it up to date....

Edit: looks like they're following something like their published procedure after all, as per https://www.firstbus.co.uk/help-and-support/what-happens-if-my-card-declined-0

What happens if my card is declined?

If you've made a purchase on board that was subsequently declined by your bank, unfortunately your card will be automatically blocked by our system. Once any outstanding amounts are settled by your bank, your card will be automatically unblocked. Until this happens, you'll need to pay with an alternative method. 

It's still unclear to me what they mean by your bank settling an outstanding amount, but perhaps the most pragmatic resolution would be to ask First exactly what they believe they're still owed and pay it (unless you have statement proof that you already did)?

Aylesbury_Duck

jemmawrites said:

Alderbank said:

To simplify:
You used to be able to use your TSB card to pay contactless on your regular bus journey.
Your TSB card is no longer accepted by the bus company.

You ask 'Can I take this further?'

Consumer rights legislation does not cover means of payment.

You have no general right to demand that a provider of goods or services must accept any specific method of payment. For example, some merchants have a list of which cards they will accept. Some will not accept cards of eg. less than £5.
Some don't take credit cards. Some are cash only. Some won't accept bags of coins. Some won't take Scottish banknotes or Euros.
Unless the reason is discrimination against a protected group all these are quite legal.

I assume that you don't have another payment card from a different bank, and the bus no longer accepts cash?

I think your options might be to buy a season ticket or open a second account with another bank such as Starling. Having an alternative payment card in case of loss, network failure, etc. can be a sensible idea.

Hi, Thanks for your reply, I don't have any accounts from another bank and I don't think I should have to open a new account with a new bank just to use the bus, what's to stop them doing this to a new card I get or even from doing the same thing to other people. I completely understand it's not illegal but it's certainly not fair to block someone's card for no reason despite having proof of that 🤷

That's fair enough, but you might want to buy some snowshoes for winter, then.

Sometimes it's better to forget about a principle, and take the path of least resistance.  That means opening a back-up account (which is a good idea, anyway).  Or, you could continue to take your custom to the second bus company to prove a point to the first bus company, but I doubt the original bus company will care much.

sheramber

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/bus-users-uk

If you have complained about a bus service and have not had a satisfactory response, please email: enquiries@bususers.org or phone: 0300 111 0001.

prettyandfluffy

I would ask for a replacement card and in the meantime, use Googlepay.

PragmaticMoneySaver

I'm confused... you say this

jemmawrites said:

<snip> .... I used my googlepay (same bank account as the card) and that worked fine. </snip>

yet you also said...

jemmawrites said:

I need to get the bus to and from work for that last month I've been using another bus company and having to walk 15 mins extra each way, not looking forward to that when it's snowing!

Surely the immediate answer is to just use GooglePay instead rather than seemingly cutting off your nose to spite your face by adding a 15 min walk onto your journey.

Alderbank said:

<snip>   Some will not accept cards of eg. less than £5.  </snip>

Most merchant agreements do state in the contract that a merchant cannot set a minimum limit for card payments and card should be accepted as an equivalence to all other payment methods.  Albeit not illegal it is contractual.

RefluentBeans

Yeah agree with comments about using GooglePay. 

Contactless cards commonly decline when used frequently. You can escalate the complaint internally as far as you like, but they’re likely to just not be that bothered. 

Just pay Google Pay. I’d also strongly recommend having a secondary bank account just in case you need it, but that’s kind of beyond the scope.