OT Who is "SID" and why has my bank card stopped working

[Lobster]

So do I!

I can't recall now why it was imperative to sort out the stopped card when I had to; possibly a non-acceptability of Visa versus Mastercard where I was travelling at the time?

David

[Lobster]

Egg? Pah. That's the issuer who blocked my card for me (see other post). They did it on numerous occasions, despite me never having had my account compromised, and each time I'd get a computer phoning my home number (only home - never email or mobile number) to try to resolve it. On the final time it happened I went into orbit ("but it's only for your protection, sir") and closed the account; three years or so later the Lloyds-TSB replacement hasn't been stopped once (and provide me with a better loyalty scheme!)

David

[Bob Eager]

I had exactly the same problem.

I went to Barclaycard, which turned out to be frying pan into fire. I had to phone them: "Oh, we would have phoned you sir, but you're in a long queue (not enough staff)". This was many hours after the block went on.

[Jules]

In my case my bank gave me a number I could call designed specifically for international use - got me straight through to a human being and card unblocked* with minimum of hassle (although I did it from a normal US landline; granted it'd be more of a pain from a payphone).

• except that they'd blocked it because they said they sent me a paper statement in the post and it had been returned - which was odd because I'd long before told them to cease sending statements as I'd just keep track online. I'm guessing some new employee goofed somehow - or I have a bazillion bank statements sitting in a pile at some unknown address ;)

cheers

Jules

[Steve Walker]

You're right about no intelligence - I recently phoned Natwest Mastercard to transfer a balance to their card; had to go through security with them for them even to talk to me to make the transfer; four days later I got a message on my phone asking me to call Natwest Fraud team to confirm that it was me that requested the transfer, which I had to prove by going through the normal security checks that I'd already gone through!

SteveW

[Lobster]

And why is it now then whenever you ring up to talk to someone about your credit card account, before you *finally* get to the fifteenth level of the menu which says "for any other enquiries, please hold" they make you enter via your phone keypad your 65-digit card number ("sorry, I didn't recognise that,please try again"), postcode, cat's date of birth and granny's telephone number, and then the droid who finally answers asks you for the whole lot again? whinge, whinge...

David

[stan]

. Quote: "The bank is now shut and I cannot call them back until the morning". Huh? You mean that your bank does not have 24 hour toll free phone service?????? Change your account and card to an outfit that provides 'service'! I believe the rule here is that if you detect unauthorised use of your card/account and you advise the bank or the card issuer within 24 hours you are not then liable for any of the transactions! Twenty four hour 365 day phone service makes that easy from almost anywhere in the world!. And so far I have not, with any of the most reputable, ended up with an answering service in India or S.America! In fact if late at night am going over an account, quite routinely make a toll free call to check something. Sometimes interesting too to swap a few words with someone working in a time zone with a 4.5 hour difference on the other side of North America!

[ARWadsworth]

. Quote: "The bank is now shut and I cannot call them back until the morning". Huh? You mean that your bank does not have 24 hour toll free phone service??????

For lost or stolen cards then yes my bank has 24 hour service to report this.

My card was not lost or stolen.

Adam

[Bolted]

I had the same kind of crap from HSBC at one time. They had a policy of calling to check, but then dropped that for just putting a card block on and seemingly doing nothing until the customer calls up to find out what the hell is going on. On about the fifth occasion of having my card blocked with no warning and no attempt to contact me, and getting inflexible nonsense from scripted call centre staff, I called the switchboard at the Canary Wharf HQ and asked who was in charge of their card security systems. They wouldn't put me through, but I was pleasantly surprised to get a call back from a very pleasant woman who promised to change the settings and gave me =A350 for the inconvenience. It hasn't happened since (must be about 3 years).

[larkim]

Just to respond in Egg's defence, they do call me on my mobile whenever the card gets stopped - though they do seem to stop it more often than I would like.

For example, I tried to book an online RyanAir flight (don't criticise me for that!!), and it wouldn't accept the credit card. Just for ease, I put it through on Maestro instead, and then called Egg the next day when the card was also refused at the petrol station. According to their staff at the other end, they almost routinely block RyanAir transactions without prior contact from the customer due to the amount of fraudulent transactions they have had with them. Fine, but I would have appreciated knowing about that before I was trying to book the flight!!

On another occasion I did "man Xmas shopping" - i.e. blitz Manchester on a Thursday evening buying for everyone in one fell swoop. After 8 purchases I couldn't use the card any more, so called them and they explained that they had a limit of 8 transactions per day, and if that was exceeded "the system" automatically stopped the card. Again, fine but tell me about it in the terms and conditions and then I'll know to call before I exceed it!!

On the other hand a) they have successfully identified and stopped fraudulent transactions on my card twice and b) I have always been able to get through to them and get it sorted instantly.

Matt

[Steve Walker]

One of my cards deinitely has a fraud department with a call centre that is only open during "office" hours, so if your card is stopped by them outside those hours, you can't do anything about it 'til the next day - very nice if you're out or away and your only means of paying for a ticket home or a hotel room for the night is the card that they've stopped!

SteveW

[Keith W]

Only SID I can think of is the guy that we were all supposed to tell about gas privatisation (anyone old enough will understand that joke) ;o)

[Andrew Gabriel]

You don't notice how long you've been in a queue for an operator, if you didn't realise you were in a queue for an operator, and thought instead you were doing something useful ;-)

[Mark]

I think he lost his shirt too.

[Andy Champ]

I've just been called by my CC company over possible fraud. It seems it was a bit odd for them to cope with me paying a hotel bill in Scotland, a charge for the M6 toll, and then those untrustworthy bods at BT and the local council all on the same day.

What kind of fraudster pays his phone bill and council tax on a stolen card?

Andy

[ARWadsworth]

But at least your CC co called you. You could have had the card stopped just before you entered the M6 toll.

Adam

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Given these frauds are rarely followed up, plenty.

[Dave Liquorice]

I was thinking that it was paying the hotel in Scotland and paying the M6 toll an hour later that was the trigger for the phone call. B-)