Halifax Visa Electron

PaulW922

WTFUK - I had exactly the same problem with my Coop Visa card at PC World, Currys and Dixons - all DSG owned companies.

mancini601

PaulW922 wrote: »

WTFUK - I had exactly the same problem with my Coop Visa card at PC World, Currys and Dixons - all DSG owned companies.

Well...this morning I finally got to the bottom of it.

I called Halifax and explained the situation for the umpteenth time, and this time they fixed the problem, explained what the problem was etc.

They said that our account had a fraud warning placed against it and what caused it was two things. Firstly we transferred a large sum from our savings account to our current account and then tried to pay a large bill from our current account at the post office using our debit card. 2 large transactions (I quote..."caused us to be concerned with possible fraudulent activity on your account sir".

What they did was lock our cards to only allow transactions for under £100. Because we could use our cards in some places (as specfied above) and that they were under the 'flag' limit, they were authorised but all other were declined due to their size.

What really irks me is that it has taken 10 phone calls to the Halifax to sort this and on 9 of those times they each and every time stated that there was nothing wrong with our account.

I asked the chap on the phone how can you know where the cards were declined on Friday and he said because your account history with the Halifax is showing the rejections. I then quoted that 9 times I was told that there were no rejections showing and that everything was supposedly clear.

He then quoted to me about how they were just trying to protect our account to which I replied, "If you were locking our account due to concern over fraudulent use of debit cards, then fair enough, only you didn't did you? You only locked our account for transactions over £100, so if a fraudster was involved, they could've made mutiple under £100 transactions. In addition, you repeatedly told us that there were no problems with our cards or account and caused us embarrassment in shops on multiple occassions.

He didn't reply.

I understand now what has happened, but for them to take 4 days to give me an answer after 9 times saying everything is OK and allowing my wife and I to worry unduly is awful service to be honest.

What they should've done if they suspected fraud is to have locked the whole account.....

Meltdown_2

And told you what they doing ...

space_rider

I tried to use my halifax electron in mcdonalds and it was declined. I went to cash point and took some money out after speaking to halifax. When I got my statement I saw that they mcdonalds did indeed take the money out and refunded it few days later. I went to Next a few days ago using my halifax visa debit card and it was declined. phoned halifax again as I knew I had money in, it was pay day, and was told there is money on the account so Next need to contact their merchant bank which they said they couldn`t do. It`s not like I needed the item of clothing so left the shop. My worry is if it happens when I am buying petrol or food shopping. I`m going to have to ring them and tell them that I`m not happy with the unreliability of the card.