Fraud Check - personal details required in public place

cymruchris

Woodlark10 said:

In future will take another card with me.

Always a wise precaution no matter where you're going or what you're doing that involves using credit or debit cards.

born_again

Woodlark10 said:

Thanks for comments.  I explained to caller I was in a crowded store.  Supermarket I was in hadn't come across this instant block before - I checked with manager, neither have friends, family or other shops I have asked at. Fraud checks not unusual but previously I have had alerts by text or phone call advising to ring fraud dept but not this instant block.   Nothing abnormal about spend, use, usual supermarket and profile.  Fraud operator gave me details of my husbands recent spends on his separate account instead of from mine which wasnt helpful either!   Old age didn't help situation re distress - but well done Waitrose kind staff who rescued me and looked after the unpaid shopping while I had to leave the store to sort.  In future will take another card with me.

As systems get better instant will become more often. Which is the best & fastest way to sort. 

You think it was stressful being instant. How would you have felt if it had not come though for a couple of hours & you had not other payment method in store?

nyermen

Likely instant because it was already blocked due to something else.  Did it not work elsewhere, or perhaps something caught their attention (maybe even they blocked online fraud already)

HSBC used to have an annoying habit of doing this - I was travelling a lot, and I'd go to somewhere like Minsk, pay the hotel bill fine, and then they'd block me next purchase, commonly in the Sainsburys I'd shopped at for over 15 years...

DullGreyGuy

Barclays for about 9 months used to put a block on my debit card each time I paid my NW CC bill... I mean I wouldn't trust NW very much either but they'd been fine with it for years before and were fine with it again after. They never were able to say why it was triggering their system. 

Add to that IT outages in recent years and it's always sensible to have a second option with you.