Card declined - no warning

It shouldn't be that difficult for the card issuer to send a text. Basic customer service I would have thought.

Brightmerchant wrote: »

That sounds sensible. Perhaps terminals could be adjusted to flash up a "Advise customer to call issuer" message to spare the cardholder the embarrassment of "Declined"?

This suggestion is akin to a process that used to happen more often but probably hardly ever happens these days. The Issuer would send a 'referral' response to the authorisation request and the retailer is supposed to call their Acquirer and put the cardholder on the phone to verify their identity.

Sadly, many transaction environments are not suitable for this sort of process any more and the supermarket check-out is one of those where it can cause mayhem.

The daft thing here is that the card details had been compromised - it wasn't that the physical piece of plastic had been lost or stolen - so the issuer could have adopted a differentiating policy of declining card-not-present transactions but approving CHIP & PIN (as suggested above) until such time as they could advise the cardholder of the problem.

Sadly, not all issuers are created equal.

I am surprised that the OP's wife knew nothing of this - perhaps it's down to the card provider?

My other half used her Nationwide debit card last year online to purchase something (from China although we didn't realise this) - the transaction was not authorised and she immediately received a call.

More recently (at the beginning of the year)I had a text message alert from a credit card provider (Halifax) saying that there was a suspect transaction; turned out to be legitimate but the card was immediately blocked pending my telephone call (and I was told all this in a text message).

So yeah, very surprised that nothing was raised from the provider. Perhaps (and I am guessing here) she opted out of all communications from the card issuer and therefore did not receive the alert?

Card functionality isn't only restricted due to suspicious activity.

About two months ago, my Club Lloyds card was declined through Contactless at three different retailers (fortunately I always carry alternative means of payment). I keep £5,000 minimum in this account at all times (that sweet CL interest) so was somewhat confused. I'd had no messages or contact regarding any suspicious activity (and they have my up-to-date contact details).

A few days later I used Chip & Pin and subsequently the contactless starting working again. It leads me to believe that they periodically temporarily disable contactless on cards that haven't had the PIN entered in a while.

I agree with the above. Nothing stopping Lloyds sending an automated text saying 'We've noticed your PIN hasn't been entered in a while. For security reasons we've temporarily disabled contactless payments.", lord knows they send me enough messages about getting a mortgage with them!