Expensive travel card!

TwiceNightly

It may be free to receive a text, but the texts from Halifax are a question that you need to send a text back to respond to, like a 'was this you?' kind of thing

grumpy_codger

TwiceNightly said:

It may be free to receive a text, but the texts from Halifax are a question that you need to send a text back to respond to, like a 'was this you?' kind of thin

I have Clarity and have never experienced this, but that's what the OP said:

Briggs44 said:

...they insisted on validating the purchase by sending me a code number to input. ...

TwiceNightly

I can't remember exactly what the text normally says, and it may not be on all accounts, but it's something like:

You're trying to make a purchase for £1 on card ending XXXX, if this is you reply with YES, if this is not you reply with NO

Then, when you reply YES you get another text to say it's approved and to wait 10 minutes and try the purchase again.

It's why I stopped using it, that text thing is so unreliable and I'm not waiting in a shop for 10 minutes before I try a purchase again and all that faffing.

born_again

TwiceNightly said:

I can't remember exactly what the text normally says, and it may not be on all accounts, but it's something like:

You're trying to make a purchase for £1 on card ending XXXX, if this is you reply with YES, if this is not you reply with NO

Then, when you reply YES you get another text to say it's approved and to wait 10 minutes and try the purchase again.

It's why I stopped using it, that text thing is so unreliable and I'm not waiting in a shop for 10 minutes before I try a purchase again and all that faffing.

Never had anything like that, as you are using physical card & entering pin.

TwiceNightly

It happens if you're using contactless or Apple Pay, it gets declined, you get the texts and do that and can then try again after 10 minutes.

It didn't used to be like that 2-3 years ago, it's more of a recent thing.

MEM62

This is hardly a Halifax issue and I fail to understand why a complaint was aimed at them.  The OP's comms were apparently compromised - that is where the issue is, not with the card provider.  .

sausage_time

All this points to having more than one card available for use.  I always travel with multiple credit and debit cards that can be called on if needed as backup.

I'd not be using Clarity if this was the norm for my use cases.

lr1277

Jumping on this thread to provide a niche data point from a thread on another forum.

Reading these boards, I notice a number of people are down on the Clarity card and may prefer a Barclaycard.

However on this thread:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/chat-thread-thursday-5th-june/

If you scroll to the bottom of the 1st page, you will notice a post from somebody called davefl.

Davefl notes that Barclaycard was unusable in 2 particular stores/locations in the USA, but luckily had the Clarity card as a backup.

As @sausage_time suggest, carry multiple card from different institutions.

Please note, you can only add comments to the above thread (once you are a registered user) today and possibly tomorrow. From then on the thread is locked. Though I think it should still be readable.

sausage_time

lr1277 said:

...

As @sausage_time suggest, carry multiple card from different institutions.

...

Just to build on that..

• Aim to have at least one FX friendly of each Mastercard or Visa in case of major system outages.  I have built up a decent collection of such credit and debit cards.  I carry the physical cards (some in hand baggage some in my wallet in case of loss/theft) and my main cards on my phone too.
• Ideally have mobile phone coverage through your carrier, or using an eSIM.  Generally eSIMs are only good for mobile data, so if institutions like Halifax insist on SMS receipt+sending seriously consider using a different card. 

Olenna

lr1277 said:

Jumping on this thread to provide a niche data point from a thread on another forum.

Reading these boards, I notice a number of people are down on the Clarity card and may prefer a Barclaycard.

However on this thread:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/chat-thread-thursday-5th-june/

If you scroll to the bottom of the 1st page, you will notice a post from somebody called davefl.

Davefl notes that Barclaycard was unusable in 2 particular stores/locations in the USA, but luckily had the Clarity card as a backup.

As @sausage_time suggest, carry multiple card from different institutions.

Please note, you can only add comments to the above thread (once you are a registered user) today and possibly tomorrow. From then on the thread is locked. Though I think it should still be readable.

Always take at least a backup; Chase is excellent for the US with lots of charge free ATMs. 

However, if you actually examine the Davefl HFP comments...

One Example is 'invalid merchant' - this often happens if they process a European card as 'debit' when all European cards go through as 'credit'.

The other is Pay at Pump -  always hit & miss as they ask for the five digit US Zip code - sometimes 5 zeros, 5 nines or the digits in your postcode padded with zeros e.g. EN8 9SL is 89000 but these don't always work.