Shops confiscating debit cards when declined - who remembers this?

[Confusedandanxiety]

Does anyone remember in the 90s/early 2000s shops wouldn't give your debit card back when it was declined. I think they might have got a reward of £50 or something if they did this.
Is it still a thing?
I understand it happened for fraud reasons, but I vaguely recall me and some other students maxing out our overdrafts and when trying to buy fags and booze the shop assistant saying they had been instructed by the bank to retain the card.

Yup 100% remember this happening as a student trying to buy fags and booze

Meee! It was a thing late 90’s when l worked in a shop. There was a reward for the store for doing this. Can’t remember if it was £25 or £50?

Yep was a thing, but I don’t remember ever getting a reward - it’s possible it went straight to the large retailer I worked for.

I worked in a shop in the 90s. You had to ring a number on the back of the card before you did the transaction.
Often they would say on the phone to retain the card.

This. You didn't always retain the card. You had to ring a number and then sometimes you were instructed to retain it.

This was during the days that cards could be processed manually with those paper slips with the carbon copies and the handheld machine that took an imprint. Retaining the card meant it couldn't continue to get used. Not an issue now as cards can only be processed electronically.

Here's a pic...

I loved that machine. It was weirdly satisfying to use and made a great sound.😊

Oh god yes I remember working in a Littlewoods store in London late '80s and any debit card purchases the floor manager had to be called to validate the card transaction by phoning up and getting a reference number. I saw quite a lot of cards cut up in front of "customers". 16 yo me was 😳whereas tired old me is 🙄

We have an imprinter in work in case the tills go down, I can't imagine it is of any use at all as no-one else would be able to use it, I doubt we have the carbon slips and a lot of cards don't have raised numbers on nowadays anyway. Also, a surprising number of people don't sign the back of their card!

I remember that! It was always fun explaining that you had to retain the card to the fuming customer while attempting to hide your joy at the £50 reward ha ha

I worked in a shop the mid 90's, and we moved from the imprinter things to the very first card readers (PDQ machines?)

They had a phone attached and used to dial through to the bank or credit card company. If all was okay, it used to print a carbon copy receipt which the customer signed and you had to check the signature matched.

Other times it would decline, but sometimes the bloody phone would ring and the person on the other end would tell you to retain the card- I hated that! And I never saw the alleged £50 'reward', I suspect it went to head office.

Yes, I remember having to call the issuer who told me to retain and destroy the card. I had to cut it in two in front of the customer and they were not happy! I don't remember getting a reward though, did that go to the retailer?

I worked at Harvey Nicks in the 80s and we were supposed to keep their HN credit card if it was declined. They could just go up to the credit department upstairs, so I think that's what I used to tell them to do. I don't recall there being a reward for anything.

I worked for a supermarket chain in the mid 90s. We used to get a code flash up on the till, 1 just meant insufficient funds so you had to ask for alternative payment, 2 was that the bank wanted the card returned to them, 3 was the card had been reported stolen. If it was 2 or 3 we had to cut the card up in front of the customer.

I remember getting £50 for retaining someone’s card when I worked at Matalan back in the day. As I was only on about £2.50 an hour I felt like I’d won the lottery!

ah! The days of shouting across the shop “ anyone seen the click clack machine?” As someone had buried it under a pile of returns or paperwork… and the ‘fun’ in the cash office trying to work out what the one card number that handy quite imprinted properly was.

I remember this too! I worked in an off-licence in a semi-rough area and remember one customer being incredibly angry when I explained I had to keep the card that they called the police.

Police arrived and told me to give him back the card, as it was his card. I had to explain it was actually the property of the bank.

Not sure if the aggro was worth the £50 reward...

Call number

Listen to hold music

Detail what's happened, including the store and transaction number

Listen to instructions

Pull out a pair of sturdy scissors, kept under the counter for just such an occasion

Watch their faces as they watch you cut their cards in half.

Yes! I worked for Sainsbury’s and there were certain codes that came up on the screen when cards were being declined.

Where I worked in the 90s, our tills used to flash up with 'call Mr robinson' if there was a problem with the card. If it ended up being stolen you got £50.i had the message once, but never got a reward, so assume it was just over the credit limit and not stolen.

I had a really similar experience also working in an offy! My colleague called the police whilst credit card man was yelling at me, and then when he realised they were on their way he ran off. So when the police arrived they sat me in the back of their car and we drove around looking for him. Didn't find him, but at least I did get the £50.

I used to work in a bank years ago. We would confiscate cheque cards quite regularly, and we kept a pair of ceremonial 'Big Scissors' under the counter for cutting them up in front of the customer. When I say big, they were massive, like garden shears. 😂

In the 80's we also had a naughty list circulated by head office, and if you managed to spot one of those fraudsters you got a reward.

I got quite a few £50 rewards in the early 00s - it was quite the little earner! They were often dodgy fake cards with the holograms peeling off.

I worked in Waitrose in the mid 90s; we were told not to keep the card and even if it was stolen, to hand the card back. I think the reasoning was to protect the staff member from any physical violence. Staff never got the £50 reward anyway, even if the "customer" legged it, I think it was donated to charity.

I worked in an off license in the late 90s and I got the £50 for retaining someone's card a few times. I was told it was that high to make sure you definitely would put up with being shouted at by the angry shopper!
I definitely felt £50 was worth being shouted at 😅