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02/12/2012 01:50:20 PM · #1
Barclaycard just blocked my card and access to view my accounts online. I know this is not down to balance so I call them to see what's happening.

The first girl I speak to in the Indian call centre asks a security question relating to my spending last month (remember I have no access to my statements as I can't login) which fortunately I get right. She then tells me that she can't discuss the account with me and someone will call back in 24 to 48 hours.

I hang up and realise I now have no way of knowing what's going on with my card or if my details have been stolen so I call back. On getting connected I immediately complain about the first call and demand that this is resolved straight away.

This new guy in the Indian call centre again asks me a question relating to my spending, it's to do with a shoe store, I check with my wife the name of the store, but guess what, because I was "prompted" to give the answer, they can't accept it.

We then go onto asking personal questions to verify my identity, multiple choice, easy enough, except the third question goes like this:

Can you tell me which of the following is your phone or internet provider

Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D

Problem is, that option A is my phone provider and option C is my internet provider. I explain this to the gentleman, this confuses him, I explain again and ask if he wants my phone provider or my internet provider, I get put on hold, he comes back apologises for the delay but tells me he is unable to help me.

By this point I am getting "mildly upset". I tell him I want his name and position and magically he offers to transfer me to his superviser, which I take him up on.

This third person (supervisor) explains that it's for my protection that they can't discuss the card. I tell him that I need to sort this now and I don't want to wait 24 - 48 hours for a call back, and ask why he can't deal with it. After much conversation I get to the bottom of the problem, I'm talking to the Fraud Detection Department, and my case is being handled by the Fraud Department (notice the absence of "Detection").

I ask to be put through to the department who is dealing with it, they can't.

I ask for the number of the department who is dealing with it, they "don't have it".

I ask if it's normal to have two fraud departments who are physically unable to have a conversation with each other.

After this we go round in circles for a while, going nowhere. I finally ask if he has any way whatsoever to contact the department and turn up the fact that he can email them. I demand he sends an email telling them that if I don't get a call back within the next hour, I'm cancelling my card.

Surprise surprise, in under an hour, I get a call back from Fraud Detection. They ask me clever questions, like my address, my previous address, how long I've had my card and finally we get to the root of the problem.

My card showed, not unusual spending patterns, but, and I quote "Patterns of spending which would represent those of someone who was trying to use my card fraudulently while trying to match my spending patterns so it wasn't detected."

I ask if / when they were planning to notify me that they had blocked my card or if they were just going to wait until I noticed and called them. He apologised and explained that they would normally call but because I had recently changed my address on the account this was an indication of fraudulent behaviour. I told him that my number had never changed so why hadn't they called, and he told me that instead of calling, they had sent a letter to my address, MY NEW ADDRESS!!!

Well this was just too much for me, it prompted me to point out how idiotic their procedure was and how massively it had inconvenienced me. I did get a £40 credit on my account, but I'm wondering if I want to stick around with them!

Point of note, I have no problem with the credit card companies trying to protect me. In the past HSBC and ANZ have both declined payments because the transactions were unusual, but both of them had called me IMMEDIATELY to verify if it was actually me, and then released the transaction straight afterwards. Barclaycard or anyone from Barclays Bank, if you're reading this, THAT'S how you do it!
02/12/2012 02:07:05 PM · #2
Another reason why I don't have a credit card.

I had my card shut off while I was traveling in Europe. I found this out on a Sunday while trying to pay for a meal. When I called the cc company I was told the Fraud Department only worked M-F 8-5 EST, which did me no good. Fortunately, I had enough cash to cover the bill.
02/12/2012 02:11:07 PM · #3
I don't have a credit card either, nor will I deal with a bank that pays me less than 1% interest on my savings, yet can manage to pay their CEO a £3million bonus!
02/12/2012 02:16:14 PM · #4
Originally posted by Spork99:

Another reason why I don't have a credit card.

I had my card shut off while I was traveling in Europe. I found this out on a Sunday while trying to pay for a meal. When I called the cc company I was told the Fraud Department only worked M-F 8-5 EST, which did me no good. Fortunately, I had enough cash to cover the bill.


I actually used this very thing as an example to them to point out how crazy the system was.
02/12/2012 02:18:52 PM · #5
Originally posted by SteveJ:

I don't have a credit card either, nor will I deal with a bank that pays me less than 1% interest on my savings, yet can manage to pay their CEO a £3million bonus!


I only use mine for monthly bills and online transactions and then pay it off at the end of the month. Because I get 40 days interest free it lets me manage my bills much easier that way and I never have to pay any extra.

02/12/2012 02:32:06 PM · #6
I had a credit card, once upon a time.

We were going to Florida on a road trip. I called two days prior to the trip telling the credit card company that we were going on the trip and not to freak out when they saw the charges.

Day one of the trip they shut off my card. I called and they said, Due to unusual use at multiple gas station on the same day (fraudulent behavior) they shut it down. I asked if they could see the note from my call two days earlier. They said, yes. I said...how about unfreezing my card now. Dumb@$$es!!!

I know they're trying to do it for our own safety (and they don't get stuck with the bills), but common sense should come into play.
02/12/2012 02:58:34 PM · #7
I used to have a card with Egg.com - in November their card business was bought by Barclaycard. I set up a direct debit to pay the full balance each month. In November and December the full balance was taken. At the end of January I got a call from an Indian woman saying that she was ringing me from Barclaycard to get my account back in order. She told me I had an unpaid balance and that I should pay the outstanding amount from a debit card. Smelling a fish I refused and said that I would go online to service my account and would pay any outstanding balance online. As far as I was concerned there was nothing wrong with my account and being very security conscious I wouldn't give her any of my personal details.

So I went online and found I owed £73, of which £12 was a late payment charge. I was immediately royally pissed off so rang Barclaycard and got another Indian, a bloke this time, that I could barely understand. I had a bit of a rant about how the hell I had a late payment charge when they are authorised to take the full amount every month. He apologised and said the direct debit must not have come over from the migration from Egg. I pointed out that it worked just fine in November and December so why wouldn't it work for January. They refunded my late payment charge but throughout I was made to feel like I was in the wrong when clearly Barclaycard had messed up.

As a first impression of Barclaycard this was pretty poor.

I hate foreign call centres btw. A major turn off.
02/12/2012 03:14:31 PM · #8
I also came over from Egg. Never had a problem with Egg, like them as a card provider but Barclaycard has been a nightmare.

In fact, when they first switched it over, I called them to make sure the direct debit had transferred, they said yes. Two days later I got a text from them about my direct debit which I couldn't tell if they meant it was OK or not so I called them, got reassured it was OK again.

Being the suspicious untrusting type that I was, I waited until just before payment was due, logged on to my account and found that no direct debit was setup. I set it up online but I can just imagine if I didn't it would have been the same thing as you, charges etc!

Originally posted by lawrysimm:

I used to have a card with Egg.com - in November their card business was bought by Barclaycard. I set up a direct debit to pay the full balance each month. In November and December the full balance was taken. At the end of January I got a call from an Indian woman saying that she was ringing me from Barclaycard to get my account back in order. She told me I had an unpaid balance and that I should pay the outstanding amount from a debit card. Smelling a fish I refused and said that I would go online to service my account and would pay any outstanding balance online. As far as I was concerned there was nothing wrong with my account and being very security conscious I wouldn't give her any of my personal details.

So I went online and found I owed £73, of which £12 was a late payment charge. I was immediately royally pissed off so rang Barclaycard and got another Indian, a bloke this time, that I could barely understand. I had a bit of a rant about how the hell I had a late payment charge when they are authorised to take the full amount every month. He apologised and said the direct debit must not have come over from the migration from Egg. I pointed out that it worked just fine in November and December so why wouldn't it work for January. They refunded my late payment charge but throughout I was made to feel like I was in the wrong when clearly Barclaycard had messed up.

As a first impression of Barclaycard this was pretty poor.

I hate foreign call centres btw. A major turn off.
02/12/2012 04:27:14 PM · #9
this happened to my credit card twice. once when i bought new tv, they blocked the transaction. apparently since i never but expensive items this got flagged. the second time was because i used it too much in a short time. i was getting ready for a party and swiped my card at nearly 10 stores in short succession.

both times i called up the credit card, they validated i owned the card and removed the block, pretty quick, while i was still in the store.

yes its an inconvenience, buts you have to understand they have to protect themselves. if anyone ever steals my card, im not liable for any charges so its a fair trade.

i really have nothing but good things to say about Chase, who sponsors the card. their customer service has always been top notch, i even had to use buyer protection to dispute a charge when i didn't get a refund i felt i was entitled to after a bad experience renting some waverunners and its was extremely easy.

02/12/2012 05:01:03 PM · #10
Originally posted by mike_311:

this happened to my credit card twice. once when i bought new tv, they blocked the transaction. apparently since i never but expensive items this got flagged. the second time was because i used it too much in a short time. i was getting ready for a party and swiped my card at nearly 10 stores in short succession.

both times i called up the credit card, they validated i owned the card and removed the block, pretty quick, while i was still in the store.

yes its an inconvenience, buts you have to understand they have to protect themselves. if anyone ever steals my card, im not liable for any charges so its a fair trade.

i really have nothing but good things to say about Chase, who sponsors the card. their customer service has always been top notch, i even had to use buyer protection to dispute a charge when i didn't get a refund i felt i was entitled to after a bad experience renting some waverunners and its was extremely easy.


This is why I'm going to change provider. I had good experiences with both HSBC here and ANZ in Australia when it came to this. They blocked it when they thought it was fraud but called me immediately to verify.

Barclaycard on the other hand blocked it on a Friday night, sent me a letter on the Sunday morning and were downright difficult to deal with when I called them.
02/12/2012 05:07:08 PM · #11
I can appreciate it might be a major pain, but I do appreciate the fact that they check. I vividly remember purchasing a Canon 20D in Seattle a few years ago and the young gentleman at the counter telling me that someone from the credit company wanted to speak to me. Considering that I live in Ontario Canada, I can understand their concern and truly appreciated the fact that they called.

The only other instance where I had a card refused was when I visited Australia... the denial was due to my own negligence for not reporting the fact that I would be abroad.

In most instances, I will use my bank card at an ATM machine and pay for purchases in cash... problem solved.

Ray
02/12/2012 05:19:21 PM · #12
I had a VISA credit card, which petrol/gas stations would not accept in Australia, but was accepted elsewhere. Apparently, they ask for a PIN number when you try to use the card to get petrol!!! Luckily I had enough cash, but it was very inconvenient at the time, especially in small country towns. I did alert the CC that I would be overseas.

Our CC is good about alerting us when there is suspected fraud, such is the case when someone tried to spend $19,000 using our number somehow!

02/12/2012 05:24:01 PM · #13
I have had similar experiences, some good, some bad.

The most idiotic was when my gasoline company card put a freeze on my account due to a gasoline purchase in a neighboring state. I had not notified them that I would be going out of town, so I can't complain about that part. But to check out the charges, they called my home phone and left a message on my answering machine to call back and verify the charges. Of course, I did not call back because I was out of town! They had my cell phone number on file, but no one thought to call that number to verify the charges. Idiots.

VISA caught some fraudulent charges however that saved me a lot of hassle. Turns out that someone got my wife's debit card number and made several large charges about 5 states away. VISA caught that one within hours, called me at home to verify the fraud, and cancelled the card. Didn't cost me a cent and took very little time to deal with. They were really on the ball.

So all in all, I think that the fraud prevention groups are doing a pretty good job. Just don't neglect to tell your card company whenever you will be travelling if that is out of the ordinary.
02/12/2012 05:29:33 PM · #14
You know that the over zealousness of card companies isn't to protect you, it's to protect themselves.

If there is fraud on your card, they're liable for it, not you, so when they do these things and claim it's for your own protection, it really isn't.

That being said, I have no problem with them trying to prevent fraud, they just need to go the right way about it.
02/12/2012 05:31:01 PM · #15
Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

You know that the over zealousness of card companies isn't to protect you, it's to protect themselves.

If there is fraud on your card, they're liable for it, not you, so when they do these things and claim it's for your own protection, it really isn't.

That being said, I have no problem with them trying to prevent fraud, they just need to go the right way about it.


I have to agree.
02/12/2012 05:33:15 PM · #16
Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

You know that the over zealousness of card companies isn't to protect you, it's to protect themselves.

If there is fraud on your card, they're liable for it, not you, so when they do these things and claim it's for your own protection, it really isn't.

That being said, I have no problem with them trying to prevent fraud, they just need to go the right way about it.


...You might be surprised as to the number of people that write down their pin number on the back of their cards.

Ray
02/12/2012 06:54:59 PM · #17
Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

You know that the over zealousness of card companies isn't to protect you, it's to protect themselves.

If there is fraud on your card, they're liable for it, not you, so when they do these things and claim it's for your own protection, it really isn't.

Exactly. Any inconvenience caused to you is not their problem. And having to report to your CC company that you are going overseas is crazy. I stopped using Citibank Visa when I was told to report my movements!

I also carry now 2 cc's just in case as I had Citibank Visa blocked without warning. Made me look silly when I tried to pay for groceries at the supermarket. I use now Mastercard overseas and had no problems. Visa seems to have more unrealistic and plain silly rules for fraud detection.
02/12/2012 07:54:22 PM · #18
Originally posted by heatherd:

I had a VISA credit card, which petrol/gas stations would not accept in Australia, but was accepted elsewhere. Apparently, they ask for a PIN number when you try to use the card to get petrol!!! Luckily I had enough cash, but it was very inconvenient at the time, especially in small country towns.


Use the 'Credit' button and then sign...

My other completely useless suggestion is to use a debit card instead. Can't spend money you don't have.
02/12/2012 07:59:03 PM · #19
Originally posted by pamb:


My other completely useless suggestion is to use a debit card instead.


Yup, completely useless; they are under the same fraud-prevention umbrella, and they can be shut down just as easily (and readily) if the bank thinks it's gonna be hung out to dry.

R.
02/12/2012 08:05:14 PM · #20
Soon cash will no longer be accepted. Then the subjugation will be complete.

02/12/2012 08:08:56 PM · #21
Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by pamb:


My other completely useless suggestion is to use a debit card instead.


Yup, completely useless; they are under the same fraud-prevention umbrella, and they can be shut down just as easily (and readily) if the bank thinks it's gonna be hung out to dry.

R.


Well, actually, there seems to be at least a little leeway involved. Never have I had to notify anyone about where or when I'll be travelling. However, at separate times, I have been contacted regarding unusual purchasing activity - I've been contacted on mobile phone, by the bank manager personally. Maybe my bank is just a lot nicer than yours.
02/12/2012 08:25:38 PM · #22
Originally posted by pamb:

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by pamb:


My other completely useless suggestion is to use a debit card instead.


Yup, completely useless; they are under the same fraud-prevention umbrella, and they can be shut down just as easily (and readily) if the bank thinks it's gonna be hung out to dry.

R.


Well, actually, there seems to be at least a little leeway involved. Never have I had to notify anyone about where or when I'll be travelling. However, at separate times, I have been contacted regarding unusual purchasing activity - I've been contacted on mobile phone, by the bank manager personally. Maybe my bank is just a lot nicer than yours.


Actually my bank's local and it's very nice and I haven't had any issues, but then we DO let them know when we'll be traveling. We did, however, have issues with a debit card being frozen when we were with BofA. Calling me doesn't work either, I'm deaf. That's the hell of it.

R.
02/12/2012 08:31:01 PM · #23
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

Soon cash will no longer be accepted. Then the subjugation will be complete.



Soon after that Skynet will become self-aware...
02/13/2012 02:24:32 AM · #24
Originally posted by pamb:

Originally posted by heatherd:

I had a VISA credit card, which petrol/gas stations would not accept in Australia, but was accepted elsewhere. Apparently, they ask for a PIN number when you try to use the card to get petrol!!! Luckily I had enough cash, but it was very inconvenient at the time, especially in small country towns.


Use the 'Credit' button and then sign...

My other completely useless suggestion is to use a debit card instead. Can't spend money you don't have.


I did that, I made sure I told them it was credit, I watched as the cashier did so. They have those little hand machines at the counter. Any other place it wasn't a problem
02/13/2012 07:25:12 AM · #25
Originally posted by RayEthier:



...You might be surprised as to the number of people that write down their pin number on the back of their cards.

Ray


all my cards are signed "ASK FOR ID". Surprising, rarely anyone asks for my ID.
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