Bank Anti-Fraud / (anti-consumer)?

relay

sonia140974 wrote: »

Hi
Has anyone else been hit by this so-called anti-fraud mechanism where their bank automatically stops card payments going through 'if their system thinks' you have made more transactions that you would normally do in a 'given' time?

I was woken at 7:10am today :mad: by a very embarrassing phone call from Tesco home shopping to tell me that my grocery order would not be coming as my card had been decline! DECLINED???:eek: OK, I am by no means flush, but I know for a fact that I can more that cover my grocery bill.

So I called my friendly, Asia-based bank representatives who to be honest, didn't have a clue what I was talking to - and I'm a patient person - and eventually redirected me to the 'Anti-Fraud' who very handily didn't open until 9am.

I called back at 9:01am to be told that my card was refused as it appeared I had made 'a number' of transactions in a short space of time. Having checked my account, this simply amounted to 5 x card transaction, amounting to less than £115.00 in two days - 3 of which were older transactions which simply hadn't gone through immediately.

I therefore requested that the mechanism be removed from my account and that I be the person who makes the decisions as to whether or not my card is being used 'too much'. My bank then told me they cannot remove it, but would reset it for me so that my transaction would go through successfully in the next few hours.

I want to add that this is not the first time this has happened. It also happened twice before Xmas with two other retailers. It is very embarrassing and in my opinion, although I can see the idea behind it, quite unfair that nothing can be done about it.

Thanks for listening.

Although it is understandable that you might be frustrated at the way the bank protects itself & you against suspected fraud, i think to be fair if there had have been a series of fraudulent transactions on your card & they didn't block it because it was only a small amount you would probably have been after thier blood for not protecting you against fraud.

It's one of those situations where nobody can win & the person you should really be taking it out on is the lowlives who have caused so much paranoia to the banks in the first place by stealing card details and committing fraud.