Santander credit card blocked

danco

If Santander go on like this, I will probably decide they are incompetent and close my bank accounts with them.

As I said, in a phone call early this morning I was told my card was active and had no blocks on it, and I could use the card as normal.

So later this morning I made an transaction on my computer. As I thought likely, I was told to confirm in the mobile app which I did. And after that the transaction was still declined!!

danco

Thanks. I may well have to raise a complaint. But, in addition to my specific issue, Santander have had a technical glitch which has caused them to send some emails out twice. I'm just waiting a day or two to see if this glitch causes them to send me a duplicate credit card.

danco

Though the cartd was not unblocked the first time I phoned customer service, I am glad to say it is now working, and I hope and expect it will continue fine.

comeocome

OMG! Exactly the same experience here! Recently got this card for the 2% cashback, but LOTS of issues ever since. Being constantly blocked. Basically a few transactions of small amount worked fine at first, and then one big transaction of 1K GBP at a physical shop with Apple Pay got declined. Card blocked for “potential fraud” by their automatic system. Called to get it unblocked. Fine. And then the next day with Apple Pay for a small transaction like 8 GBP, also got blocked. Called, then they said everything was fine but it was not! I tried to make another small transaction which also got declined. Called again to find out that the prior agent was wrong, and the card was indeed blocked. Then they unblocked my card but if this card is so much hassle then I will just use another card. 

Can I ask how did you eventually solve this issue? Persistent calls to CS? No more issues since? Did you have to use a chip and pin for the first time after being unblocked? 

danco

I don't know whether it was my actions or Santander's that got things OK in the end. When I had to contact customer service the second time and they said it would take one or two days to unblock I actually waited four days before using the card. And my first purchase was Chip and PIN. Since then all has been fine.

comeocome

Oh wow thanks for that. My card has been blocked twice, and every time it was resolved on the call. 

Can I ask if you have tried any large transactions and or by Apple Pay? I wonder if these will be classified as fraud and result in a block again…

danco

Nothing large as yet. I suspect that even a large payment will be ok if done by chip and PIN but possibly not if done online

flavione74

Opposite experience for me: I got my card last week, no issues so far, always paid with Google Pay or Paypal, except one transaction on Vinted, which strangely went through without requesting my approval.
Earlier this morning I was checking if my latest transactions were all cleared and I found a pending one dated Apr 24th of £13.97 from "SP NEXT DEAL SH" which I obviously never authorised (it seems a Chinese shop which sells stuff, using Shopify). I really have no idea how they managed to steal my credit card details, and reading how cautious Santander have been with many of your transactions, I'm a bit !!!!!! off they didn't block my card immediately in my case.

GeoffTF

I do not know whether this is helpful, but I can tell you what happens with my Santander Debit card payments. They usually go straight through even if they are for £50K, which they say is the daily maximum. Transactions do, however, sometimes get blocked. (I have always assumed that it was the transactions that get blocked, but it could be the card.) If I hit a blockage, I ring customer services and they either unblock it themselves or put me through to security who unblock it. Everything has always been sorted within an hour. I expect that what happens depends on your track record, and a new customer has none. It will also depend on the answers that you give to their questions. It is not impossible that being a Santander Select customer helps too. I also have a Tesco debit card and a Barclaycard, so it would not be a big problem for me if one of my cards got gummed up.

comeocome

GeoffTF said:

I do not know whether this is helpful, but I can tell you what happens with my Santander Debit card payments. They usually go straight through even if they are for £50K, which they say is the daily maximum. Transactions do, however, sometimes get blocked. (I have always assumed that it was the transactions that get blocked, but it could be the card.) If I hit a blockage, I ring customer services and they either unblock it themselves or put me through to security who unblock it. Everything has always been sorted within an hour. I expect that what happens depends on your track record, and a new customer has none. It will also depend on the answers that you give to their questions. It is not impossible that being a Santander Select customer helps too. I also have a Tesco debit card and a Barclaycard, so it would not be a big problem for me if one of my cards got gummed up.

Not sure if Santander debit card is a good example here. Card issuers are only responsible for credit cards in case of fraud. Meaning that they are extra cautious with credit cards but less inclined with debit cards.. card owners will have to be in charge of debit cards…

by the way do you like the Select Santander service?