This w/e I am "debanked" (now resolved after a 90 hours' wait and many calls. Complaint underway)

Andrea15

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082536#Comment_82082536

What puzzles me is that the bank made no attempt whatsoever to contact me. There was so text to confirm the transaction, no phone call, nothing. Say I had gone to a petrol station to fill up the car, that would have been fun …

zagfles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082565#Comment_82082565

I guess if the bank thought it was fraud using your phone, then sending a text or calling the same phone won't prove anything because it'd go to the same device being used for the fraud! That's the problem with using your phone for everything, there's no second method of contact that can be used to authorise or confirm stuff.

Andrea15

@zagfles , I suppose...

In the meantime I spent the day by the phone waiting for the phone call from the dedicated fraud time that would call me back "urgently, TODAY".

(I tried to phone at lunch time, but the guy I spoke to said he didn't know becuase he does not have access to the higher echelons of the fraud department).

Andrea15

Soooo, the upper eschelons at the fraud team trot home at 5 (happy hour?) "Hopefully someone will call me tomorrow", the lowly girl working in the fraud B-team has just told me.

dumpster_fire2025

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6677611/this-w-e-i-am-debanked

Had something similar probably 15 years ago with RBS.

After walking some distance to the pub on a Friday night (about two miles so genuinely quite far) I went to the cash machine at a nearby shop and my card was declined, it was also declined in the shop. I had no way to call the bank as my phone had been lost a week prior and the replacement was still on its way.

Managed to borrow someone's phone in the pub and call RBS who confirmed it was blocked due to a suspicious transaction but they wouldn't be able to unblock it and the fraud team had gone home for the evening (although IIRC in my case they did work on the weekend so I resolved it the following day.)

Granted it was in part due to events conspiring against me somewhat. It was triggered a couple of days earlier by me buying a replacement phone on eBay and since I had no phone they couldn't get in touch to query it with me over the phone and so the first I found out about was after walking a couple of miles to the pub. Oddly they didn't block the transaction that they thought was a bit iffy (£200 via PayPal for an eBay transaction which isn't exactly weird or unusual) which would have caused me to call them to query why the transaction was failing.

I suppose this is a good argument for keeping some cash in a second, unrelated account or having a credit card but it seems baffling that they are willing to block access to funds and then have nobody on hand who can lift that block at certain times of the day (or weekends.) It could potentially put people in some pretty "problematic" situations.

Andrea15

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083562#Comment_82083562

I have phoned them agai today , and still no joy with the a-list fraud team. I am on day 4 with no card.

Andrea15

This is unbelievable. I am nearing the end of day 5 and I am still none the wiser.

I think I will get a job with the fraud department as all you have to do is repeat 2-3 stock phrases with a monotone voice (Lilith from Fraser, but without the wit).

No one knows what is going on, the lofty fraud team is still unreachable by all and everything will be resolved "as soon as possible" and "someone will be in touch with me as soon as my issue has been resolved completely" - note the absence of a time scale.

Oh, and tomorrow I am going on holiday.

Andrea15

After keeping the poor girl 20 mins on the phone, within 10 mins someone called to say that my card had been reinstated. That was HARD WORK!

huw01

I helped a mate out at a trade event recently. I took many card payments over the course of the event, due to the height of the counter and the design of the sumup terminal it was not easy to show the amount to the person buying. I must have taken near 400 different orders and only once did the buyer ask to see the amount on the terminal screen.

It would have been difficult to get the amount incorrect as every product had its own icon on the terminal. However I do think that it is a missed opportunity in pay by phone for the amount not to be displayed on the phone display before the fingerprint is asked for

saajan_12

I feel your pain, I think it is ridiculous that there are no immediate alternatives provided by banks, whether allowing small transactions temporarily, urgently sending out a new card, etc. When I had a card stop working, their answer was 3-5 business days away. Their best suggestion was to ask a friend to be my bank (as a young grad in a new city I didn't have a friend who I could ask to go fetch cash, trust I'd repay, or let me use a card as many places don't take pins).

With other services you're not expected to just have a 2nd utility account or 2nd broadband or 2nd phone contract already running in case your main doesn't do their job. Instead they actually have to respond to issues with urgency, or at least pay a daily compensation if they fail to.