Transactions on Closed VISA account?

yorkie1980

Hi all,

I'm sure this isn't news to some regulars, but have a little story to share re: Fraud on my Vanquis Credit Card.

I paid my balance off in full on Saturday Jan 26th. Didn't use my card again, got a call on Friday 1st Feb from Vanquis asking about suspicious transactions.
They weren't mine so Vanquis cancelled the account, set up a new account, sent out a new card and pin.

So anyway, I get all my new info and tried to use my card three weeks later for quite a large payment, only for it to be rejected!! So I called them up and said "what's going on?"

Whoever had used my card previously had used the old (cancelled) account details to get ASDA Home Shopping on the 9th Feb - 8 days after the account had been closed!!
Vanquis then placed this on my new account!

Apparently (according to Vanquis), certain companies can "force" VISA to put through a transaction. It would appear the fraudsters must be aware of this and order things successfully on expired accounts.

I was absolutely gobsmacked. Vanquis said they couldn't offer me any more explanation, other than they will wipe it off once I’ve filled out a form.

• Has anyone experienced this or heard of it before?
• How can someone make a £130 purchase on an account that has been closed for 8 days?

Surely those account details wouldn't work unless:
a) CC hadn't closed the account despite sending me new card and PIN, or
b) VISA allow certain retailers to guarantee transactions?

Any ideas anyone?

Happy to answer more questions if needed, as I'm not convinced I've done a great job of explaining!! :rolleyes:

Money_Man

Yes this is possible, even on a closed account, if the transaction is not referred for authorisation and its under the retailers floor limit if will be automatically approved, visa is a guaranteed form of payment. I know it sounds crazy and in fact is! Vanquis should tidy all this up for you though.

Superheavy

Fact is, the banks and the credit card companies believe it is cheaper for them to put through transactions below a certain margin without checking than it is to have to authorise every transaction individually.

And the fraudsters think : "BINGO!"

PBA

130 pounds is surely too high to be under a floor limit though. I think it's more likely, especially as it's home delivery, that someone had ordered the goods and the transaction was authorised before you'd cancelled the card, but the delivery was booked for a week later and the transaction wasn't actually put through until after it had been delivered.

yorkie1980

Hi PBA,
Yes that is the only sane explanation I can come up with too.
I've sent my form off to Vanquis, so hopefully get refunded.
How plucky are the fraudsters though? - getting their shopping delivered to their home!!?
I said to Vanquis "surely now you have their home address you can do something about it". They were like...."errrrm yeah, possibly"
No wonder card fraud's so rife if they can get away with so easily.