Upgraded to Tesco finest card

Xbigman

Yes the upgraded card is a mastercard, although that seems to make virtually no difference as they are both accepted just about everywhere.

If you shop at Tesco.com a lot then you will get a few pounds extra clubcard points. If you buy a lot of Tesco's 'finest' range (IE the dear stuff) you can get discounts. If you do neither of those there is no point changing. In fact its easier to cancel the upgrade than to muck about changing you account details all over the place.

As an update to my original post. I have not heard anything from TPF about getting a chip and pin card nor had any confirmation that the upgrade was cancelled/not cancelled. About average for the CC industry then :rolleyes:
Regards


X

Tadpole_2

I was sent a letter in August offering me an upgrade from Visa to a Tesco Finest credit card. Speaking to customer services I was told that Tesco Finest customers get cheaper Tesco car insurance (5% discount), but I was wary of converting to Mastercard because of Mastercard's bad reputation in how it charges customers.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2748701.stm

My deadline for opting out was September 3rd, and the scathing OFT report into Mastercard's breaking of competition rules was published about three days later. On reading that report, I decided that I did not have a long term future with Mastercard, so I basically I'd half-decided to cancel the card before it had even arrived.

See: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2005/168-05.htm

I applied to Sainsburys for a conventional Visa (I qualify for their Platinum card but did not want the high credit limit) and that arrived during December.

The new Mastercard arrived in early October, and I continued to use the old Tesco Visa card until it stopped working a couple of weeks later.

In November I renewed my car insurance, but was told that I couldn't have the Tesco Finest car insurance discount as I was already claiming a 10% online car insurance discount and Tesco are unable to combine discounts.

In the end I put my Tesco Mastercard away so that I would not use it for further purchases, paid off the car insurance at the end of November, and didn't use the Mastercard again. The Sainburys Visa card then became my main credit card.

On Jan 26th I phoned Tesco and asked to be switched back to Visa. I was told that it was impossible, and the rep pushed me to ask me why would I want to go back when the customer charges are identical between Visa and Mastercard. I suggested closing my Mastercard account and re-applying as a new customer, but the rep told me I would not be able to re-apply for 9 months. So I cancelled anyway, and as of Jan 26th, my 6 years with Tesco Credit card are now over. If they accept me back onto Visa in October it would be nice, but there are better deals out there now anyway so I may not need to go back anyway.

Ironic that an attempt to migrate visa customers to Mastercard (disguised as an "Upgrade") is losing them good customers.

And now Mastercard is facing yet another enquiry over charges: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/20-06.htm

djl

jeeves wrote:

Hi...
can anyone apply for this or is it by invite only.
i have a Tesco card, had it for nearly 12 months always cleared balance in full....
do u still get the clubcard points too?

Jeeves

its the same as normal card. all i did was asked for finest and got it

rizzo_2

So can I just cut up the new cards and continue to use the old one?

chekka

rizzo wrote: »

So can I just cut up the new cards and continue to use the old one?

No - they just cancel the old one without telling you. So one day you'll try to use your tesco visa and be refused authorisation.
This just happened to us. We're on holiday and have no access to any other visa card, or indeed our 'upgrade card' which apparently awaits us at home.
I rang customer services, spoke to a so-called manager who told me that reinstating our visa was impossible and that they 'sympathised with our situation' (i.e. paying for the rest of our holiday - 2 adults 4 young children!) but there as "nothing they could do". It was "not their policy" to help out. So despite not authorising the upgrade we are stuck without a visa card. Can you imagine?!?!?!?
We've been told the earliest they can get a new card to us is Thursday -its now Sunday. Meanwhile we're left for five whole days without any cash - we just don't carry it - and no means of feeding our children.

Has anyone else been treated so poorly? Why do these big companies hide behind policies and proceedures instead of applying common sense to the situation?

Very_Poor

Isn't that against the law? You're supposed to agree to these things before they happen.

chekka

chekka wrote: »

No - they just cancel the old one without telling you. So one day you'll try to use your tesco visa and be refused authorisation.
This just happened to us. We're on holiday and have no access to any other visa card, or indeed our 'upgrade card' which apparently awaits us at home.
I rang customer services, spoke to a so-called manager who told me that reinstating our visa was impossible and that they 'sympathised with our situation' (i.e. paying for the rest of our holiday - 2 adults 4 young children!) but there as "nothing they could do". It was "not their policy" to help out. So despite not authorising the upgrade we are stuck without a visa card. Can you imagine?!?!?!?
We've been told the earliest they can get a new card to us is Thursday -its now Sunday. Meanwhile we're left for five whole days without any cash - we just don't carry it - and no means of feeding our children.

Has anyone else been treated so poorly? Why do these big companies hide behind policies and proceedures instead of applying common sense to the situation?

just to say they failed to get the new cards to us. they couriered the pin numbers instead - which just shows what kind of customer service you can expect.
the soonest they can now get cards to us is either monday or tuesday. tuesday will be 10 days after they cancelled our cards and left us without credit.

chekka

:mad:

it's now Tuesday afternoon and I'm not holding out much hope on getting our credit cards today. That's 10 days - on emergency order. What courier do they use? Even a one winged pigeon could do better....
Actually I've been told they use SMS couriers... who get 1.5 out of 10 for service on a review site on the net. And that's the average score
. Unbelievable that Tesco would entrust their credit cards to a company like that... or is it?

chekka

Tadpole wrote: »

I was sent a letter in August offering me an upgrade from Visa to a Tesco Finest credit card. Speaking to customer services I was told that Tesco Finest customers get cheaper Tesco car insurance (5% discount), but I was wary of converting to Mastercard because of Mastercard's bad reputation in how it charges customers.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2748701.stm

My deadline for opting out was September 3rd, and the scathing OFT report into Mastercard's breaking of competition rules was published about three days later. On reading that report, I decided that I did not have a long term future with Mastercard, so I basically I'd half-decided to cancel the card before it had even arrived.

See: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2005/168-05.htm

I applied to Sainsburys for a conventional Visa (I qualify for their Platinum card but did not want the high credit limit) and that arrived during December.

The new Mastercard arrived in early October, and I continued to use the old Tesco Visa card until it stopped working a couple of weeks later.

In November I renewed my car insurance, but was told that I couldn't have the Tesco Finest car insurance discount as I was already claiming a 10% online car insurance discount and Tesco are unable to combine discounts.

In the end I put my Tesco Mastercard away so that I would not use it for further purchases, paid off the car insurance at the end of November, and didn't use the Mastercard again. The Sainburys Visa card then became my main credit card.

On Jan 26th I phoned Tesco and asked to be switched back to Visa. I was told that it was impossible, and the rep pushed me to ask me why would I want to go back when the customer charges are identical between Visa and Mastercard. I suggested closing my Mastercard account and re-applying as a new customer, but the rep told me I would not be able to re-apply for 9 months. So I cancelled anyway, and as of Jan 26th, my 6 years with Tesco Credit card are now over. If they accept me back onto Visa in October it would be nice, but there are better deals out there now anyway so I may not need to go back anyway.

Ironic that an attempt to migrate visa customers to Mastercard (disguised as an "Upgrade") is losing them good customers.

And now Mastercard is facing yet another enquiry over charges: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/20-06.htm

I've been told you can only have one tesco credit card of any variety. So you did right to cancel.

chekka

OK so it's now over 2 weeks since Tesco 'actioned' an emergency card to be couriered to us after they completely messed up the [unauthorised] transfer/upgrade from visa to mastercard.
Still no cards today.... so I rang Tesco (yet again! That on-hold music ....argh! )
Apparently, SMS Couriers had delivered our cards on 4th September. No they didn't, as special arrangements our end were in place to receive the card ALL WEEK.
So now what, in this farcical saga? I'm told that Tesco are going to have to cancel those cards and start a reissue process. So we wait a further 2 days... who knows if we'll ever get our cards?
All those people employed in customer care ( and I have the names of SEVEN different 'managers' at the call centre) and still the whole outfit looks like something run by my 8 year old son...

Anyone with a problem with their credit card account should write to the following address for compensation above £75:

tesco customer concern dept
PO Box 6050
southend on sea
SS99 1WL