Abbey are doing nothing about my ~£2000 credit card fraud

mariegriffiths

Here is the complete history of my complaint with Abbey.
Someone has used my card details to make an unusual ~£2000 purchase
and Abbey have not given me a response about what is happening despite numerous emails, phonecalls and letters. I have written to the complaints department 3 times now. Almost a month has past now.
I'd love to appear on "It Pays to Watch" with my problems perhaps someone would take notice. I'm sure I could get the afternoon off work to go on the show.

27/02/2008 - Three transactions for £1.50 were applied to my account for ****Details Ommitted*** only one of which completed
I was ill at home on the 27/02/2008 and have never been to ****Details Ommitted***. This was not one of my transactions. This unusual activity was not reported.

01/03/2008 - I rang customer services to check my account but the system was down. Otherwise I may have spotted the first fraudulent transaction.

07/03/2008 - A purchase of £1947.00 was applied to my account for ****Details Ommitted*** I was at work all day in Reading and at my badminton club in the evening on 07/03/2008. This was clearly not my transaction. Who buys nearly £2000 of ****Details Ommitted***? Why wasn't this flagged up as fraud straight away? This is far removed from my spending pattern of mainly supermarket spending and it is almost the same as my monthly salary.

09/03/2008 - I rang customer services to check a transaction that I wanted to check the previous week. This was ok but the customer representative mentioned this huge transaction. They were helpful and cancelled the card straight away. She gave me the fraud department number as 08456017238 on Monday . I was appalled that the fraud department does not operate 24/7.

10/03/2008 - I rang 08456017238 and was directed through various departments to an automated system for dealing with disputed transactions. Correctly giving the responses to the questions led me to be cut off. I rang again later and eventually got through to a person in disputed transactions who said I would receive a form in 4 days.

13/03/2008 - I emailed Abbey saying that no form had arrived.

15/03/2008 - I contacted the police who were very helpful crime ref ****Details Ommitted***

18/03/2008 - I rang Abbey. I was bounced from current accounts to credit card customer services, fraud department, Visa disputes, Visa credit card disputes. I was told that only the disputed transactions department could deal with me. When I got through to disputed transactions they wanted to bounce me back to the people who said they could not deal with me. The customer advisor took my mobile number and said he would ring me back in 10 minutes. I have had no call from Abbey. On the same day I also received the letter regarding my complaint ref ****Details Ommitted*** saying that it would take another 15 days to get an answer.

19/03/2008 - I rang the given number 01908 680227 regarding my complaint ref****Details Ommitted***. I still could not get any information about when I would receive the promised disputed transaction forms.
21/03/2008 - I received my monthly statement including the fraudulent translations. They even had the gall to include the 'With the Abbey Credit Card you money is safe' leaflet. None of which has been put into practice.
I have received no information about the progress of the investigation and only an acknowlegdment of my letter of complaint.

maz1964

Hello Mariegriffiths

Im sorry to hear of your problems with Abbey, i hope that they will resolve this for you very soon, maybe you do need to go onto the telly with his "It Pays to Watch"

I know exactly how you must be feeling, but the fraud is far more upsetting than my complaint i have at the moment with them too.

Go to the mortgage board where i have posted my experience with them this week, i have actually threatened to go to the media but no one still has rung me back, maybe we should join forces and go on TV????

Mine is mainly they have not called me back as promised by 3 different people, have quoted me an offer for a a new deal but now appearing to decline it, because of the arrears i have even though explained this all to them at the time. It just makes me so cross that they do not do as they promise.

Im in the process of writing my complaint letter to them, and will also send a copy to their MD , both tomorrow and recorded delivery so i get their signatures.

You have informed the Police, which is good, im sure other more experienced people will come along but my gut feeling is that maybe you should contact all the credit agencies and see if you can put a note on your file reflecting what has happened.

Do you have any insurance incase of identity theft? paying anything on your house insurance just a thought popped into my head, you may have legal advice section or legal assistance via any insurance you have. They may be able to intervene with Abbey on your behalf?

However, i totally agree that they should have contacted your personally on this matter and reassured you that they are dealing with this and to give their customers full confidence in how they are dealing with this matter.

Me, ive totally lost any confidence in them, but im not going to go away neither.

Just want to send you a hug and i really hope someone picks this up and deals with it for you very quickly.

Do hope any of my thoughts may be of help to you

Will subscribe this thread and keep in touch on your progress.

Take care ciao for now MAZ

chongthecat

Hi there, this might seem like a strange question but when did you take your abbey card out?

The reason for asking is that until recently, Abbeys credit cards were actually processed by MBNA. They have now brought them "in house" but any cards that were opened prior to January 2006 had to stay with MBNA. This may have caused confusion as to what contact telephone number to give you. I would recommend that you visit your nearest branch to establish what type of card you have (new abbey or abbey/MBNA).

I would also hand in a written letter of complaint to the branch at the same time - although they may not be able to resolve the problem straight away, they are required by FSA and Abbey complaint regulations to send you a "stale mate" letter and then raise your complaint to 2nd stage. This basically means that there are strict time scales for them to respond and investigate. If they dont comply or you disagree, you can then take it to the financial ombudsman service to investigate.

Hope that this helps

mariegriffiths

chongthecat wrote: »

Hi there, this might seem like a strange question but when did you take your abbey card out?

The reason for asking is that until recently, Abbeys credit cards were actually processed by MBNA. They have now brought them "in house" but any cards that were opened prior to January 2006 had to stay with MBNA. This may have caused confusion as to what contact telephone number to give you. I would recommend that you visit your nearest branch to establish what type of card you have (new abbey or abbey/MBNA).

I would also hand in a written letter of complaint to the branch at the same time - although they may not be able to resolve the problem straight away, they are required by FSA and Abbey complaint regulations to send you a "stale mate" letter and then raise your complaint to 2nd stage. This basically means that there are strict time scales for them to respond and investigate. If they dont comply or you disagree, you can then take it to the financial ombudsman service to investigate.

Hope that this helps

I have sent them a third letter of complaint personally handed in at the branch and closed my other accounts with them.
The card was ob tained in October last year.

chongthecat

Your card should have automatically been transferred to abbeys new in house card. Have you tried the tel no:08456 021582? If you have sent 3 complaint letters and allowed the statutory time of 8 weeks for them to investigate and reply ( a long time I know!) you should write to the Financial Ombudsman as they have breached FSA complaints procedures. Alternatively, give the branch one last try- ask to make an appointment with the Service and Control Manager - then get them to call the Credit card team while you are with them. They can go through an internal no which can be quicker (and cheaper for you).

mariegriffiths

Thanks for the advice Chong.
Abbey said they would give me £50 for the trouble they have caused and get a disputed transaction form out to me. Apparently they have no record of their disputed transaction department getting my details. This is rubbish as I clearly went through to them and gave my details. Hopefully this will be sorted swiftly now. I believe they have missed out on a chance of catching the fraudsters red handed but their incompetance has got in the way.

Dr_Baird

I have had had to cancel 2 cards in the last 2 years. Someone was using my details online. They did a few "test purchases" for a few pounds with my A/C which I did not notice and then hit me with a big hit (an expensive hotel in Ireland). I phoned RBOS and they sent me a form and it was all sorted after 2 weeks so no problem. Check your statement very very carefully. I was only caught out because I am only in my house in Scotland for 6-7 months of the year: Maybe someone can persuade me that online banking is safe and I should go down that route or maybe I should stop paying 40% tax which keeps all the wasters in drink money and move to the IOM?

missile

It may seem like the only way to get some attention, but I would never close an account before the problem is resolved.

I suggest you write to http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

mariegriffiths

I closed the account because sometimes they try to steal monety from other accounts that you have with them. I have still not heard whether the matter is settled.

Joey122

mariegriffiths wrote: »

I closed the account because sometimes they try to steal monety from other accounts that you have with them. I have still not heard whether the matter is settled.

How exactly did they spend 2K?

What sort of shop are we talking about and did they use the PIN?

I m glad you ve been compensated but I am always amazed at what goes on