TOT Barclay bank, crazy security

I had a single Barclay (mastercard) credit card that expired. I have no other Barclay bank or credit card accounts.

Barclay have replaced the credit card with TWO cards. One is a Visa (credit) card and the other is an American Express card. I can use either on the single CC account and can share a common PIN.

Recently, to increase security, they have sent me: i) A telephone banking card and associated 4 digit PIN. ii) An on-line banking 'authentication' card with chip and a 5 digit PIN for use with a card reader that they haven't sent.

So, for one account I now have 4 cards, 4 different card numbers, 3/4 pins and 3 different phone numbers as contact numbers for each of the cards.

What was wrong with one card, one pin, one phone number? Why a second card with a different number and different chip/PIN to access the on-line account of the first card?

I suspect that I will not be able to report a stolen CC without having my telephone card, ringing the appropriate number, entering my 12 digit membership number on the phone keypad and verifying it with my PIN.

They advise that I don't write down the pins or keep the PINs with cards.

Reply to
alan
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What is telephone banking? Do you fax each other banknotes or something?

Reply to
Tim Streater

alan scribbled...

You need to dump that American Express card. They charge to use it and not every business will accept it. Don't just cut it up, phone Barclays and tell them you don't want it and threaten to change banks.

Reply to
Jabba

Didn't know Barclays and AMEX had any relationship.

If you work for a US company, you may well be required to put all expenses on your company AMEX card. That often costs an extra surcharge, and can mean it's too much hassle to use suppliers which don't take it, such as some budget airlines. There's no charge for a company AMEX (at least, not with 1000's of employees), and the company gets some equivalent of cash-back for its use, which is why it's popular with large companies.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

[snip]

I had similar thing. Had an old Egg card which became Barclays Mastercard (I already had Barclays Visa card). They then wanted to change the Barclays Mastercard into 2 cards (one of which was an Amex). Fortunately, I read the letter advising of the change and cancelled the Barclays Mastercard. About 6 months after that, they sent me a letter that they were sending me an updated Amex: "left", "hand" & "right"?

Reply to
Allan

I am a bit confused by this statement - I had a similar pair of cards from barclays recently (both labelled barclaycard) are you saying the retillers charge you to use it or barclays charge you to use it?

(The barclays leaflet I got claimed no annual charges from them, just a higher rate of cashback)

Reply to
Malcolm G

Malcolm G scribbled...

I was sent an AE card by my bank - not recently - and there was a monthly charge to us it, so I binned it.

Reply to
Jabba

I'd recommend actually changing banks. With FD I have one (debit) card and a "secure key" for Internet banking. IIRC there's also a password for telephone banking, although I don't use this.

Reply to
Mark

Barclays are presenting the change as an 'improvement'. Except, as usual, it's not. The card they cancelled had 1% cashback. Now, the Amex has 1% but, as you say, isn't as widely accepted, and the second card has only 0.5% cashback.

Reply to
F

[23 lines snipped]

Barclays have gone mad. My wife, who has several accounts with them has received a "Here is your new Internet banking card(*)" letter with no card attached and a "welcome to telephone banking" PIN mailer, even though she already has telephone banking.

(* To allow users who have no debit card to use the card reader required for Internet banking.)

Reply to
Huge

It surprised me recently how incompetent some banks seem to really be. How those expect to survive in a capitalist economy I've really no idea.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Just like governments & councils presenting cut backs.

Reply to
Mark

That seems pretty normal for cashback. Because the Amex fees to the retailer are higher, cashback at that level is sustainable. Outside of promotions, I think 1% cashback on Visa/Mastercard is rare. See:

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But you can do better than 1% cashback on an Amex though. Much, much better if you use it a lot and want to pay a fee to get an increased pay out.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Connell

Although even they are worse than they were. I have one password for telephone banking. Good. Another one for online banking if I don't use an external authentication device. Then another one for use with my phone to generate an unique number to log onto Internet banking.

But to get onto Internet banking I also need to answer a memorable question. But when they changed to external authentication they changed the question that they use. It now asks for the name of my first employer. But that is long and so prone to mistyping when one cannot see what one is typing because they just display asterisks. They suggested that I change it to my fathers middle name. So far so good but when I try to enter that I get told that my father's middle name must contain at least six characters and contain letters and/or numbers. I don't think my grandparents thought about that when they christened him.

So to log onto Internet banking I have to enter my first employers name in the right format. Then enter a password into my phone. Then copy the six digit number from my phone into the log on screen. Not as simple as the enter the first, third and penultimate character from you password that they used to use.

Reply to
Andrew May

Indeed. A year or two ago I had an Indian voice on the phone saying that there was an unusual transaction on my Barclaycard and asking me for verification data. I did not respond. There was a card holder not present transaction which had no doubt lead to this phone call.

Now I just get a phone call telling me about the transaction so that I can query it if I want.

Reply to
Michael Chare

They tried that with us when I worked there. For many of us, it meant that we lost the Frequent Flyer mileages we accrued if we used our own cards, and we just refused to use the Amex cards. When they did a big bob-boo in someone's accounting, it gave us the leverage to stay with our own cards.

Reply to
Davey

Yerss. They've just "improved" my overdraft facility. Instead of charging 19% or so APR, calculated daily, they've started charging a fixed fee of £0.75 per day. That's for any amount between £15 and £1015. So if I dip into the overdraft by £16 for a month, they will charge me £20 or so in interest.

Then, they had the cheek to tell me to get in touch with them for advice on how to reduce the amount I pay them per month. Apparently, going back to the old system isn't an available option.

Reply to
John Williamson

Make sure it's not to one that phones up and leaves an answerphone message where they accidentally call you a knob!

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Reply to
Andy Burns

The dreaded "memorable data". I wish they'd all abandon such stupid measures. IMHO if it's 'memorable' then it's also guessable, in addition to the issues you describe. I treat such fields like passwords and make up something.

And the number you first thought of .....

Reply to
Mark

In article , alan writes

Who cares? This has f*ck all to do with uk.d-i-y. Don't be so lazy, find a more appropriate group for your off-topic whinge.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

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