Defective Barclaycards

PaulHeslop

Defective Barclaycards. Despite being placed - in my wallet - alongside my credit cards with other institutions, my most recent three Barclaycards have only lasted a couple of months before they have become defective (unable to be read at ATM/EPOS systems). Am I unlucky or are others experiencing this problem?

Emmia

I think you're unlucky - mine work fine.

Rodders53

Mine is fine at nearly 2 years old.  About to be replaced by them as Freedom Rewards is closed now.

My HSBC plays up in some terminals in some stores (it's fine in other places).  But it's the terminals, not the card itself (even though a different bank card works fine in the same terminal).

Are there any physical signs of damage to the card?

born_again

Make sure chip is not rubbing against another, or something rough.

PaulHeslop

Rodders53 said:

Mine is fine at nearly 2 years old.  About to be replaced by them as Freedom Rewards is closed now.

My HSBC plays up in some terminals in some stores (it's fine in other places).  But it's the terminals, not the card itself (even though a different bank card works fine in the same terminal).

Are there any physical signs of damage to the card?

No damage to the card. It looks brand new. I have now separated the replacement card and will see how that works. I have also written to Barclaycard.

Nasqueron

PaulHeslop said:

Rodders53 said:

Mine is fine at nearly 2 years old.  About to be replaced by them as Freedom Rewards is closed now.

My HSBC plays up in some terminals in some stores (it's fine in other places).  But it's the terminals, not the card itself (even though a different bank card works fine in the same terminal).

Are there any physical signs of damage to the card?

No damage to the card. It looks brand new. I have now separated the replacement card and will see how that works. I have also written to Barclaycard.

Stick it on your phone in Apple or Google Pay so you have a backup in worst case

It's probably not that likely but I know some cards, particularly hotel ones, can be wiped being stored next to a phone too long, I suspect bank cards are more resilient but you never know! 

WillPS

Nasqueron said:

Stick it on your phone in Apple or Google Pay so you have a backup in worst case

Annoyingly, Barclaycard still doesn't support Google Pay.

Andy7856

PaulHeslop said:

Defective Barclaycards. Despite being placed - in my wallet - alongside my credit cards with other institutions, my most recent three Barclaycards have only lasted a couple of months before they have become defective (unable to be read at ATM/EPOS systems). Am I unlucky or are others experiencing this problem?

Not alone! I recently had to order new Barclay card (would not read via chip but contactless was fine - on a 3 month old card) never had that problem ever with other cards in same wallet.  Could be simply my bad luck of course, but its never received worse or better handling than the other cards.  Fortunately I had a backup card with me at the time.

born_again

Nasqueron said:

PaulHeslop said:

Stick it on your phone in Apple or Google Pay so you have a backup in worst case

It's probably not that likely but I know some cards, particularly hotel ones, can be wiped being stored next to a phone too long, I suspect bank cards are more resilient but you never know! 

If by bank card you mean a current account card. Then no, they are exactly the same. All sourced from same production facilities.

But agree Apple or Google pay is a good back up.