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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be pissed off with bank?

15 replies

ginmakesitallok · 02/11/2011 11:50

We'd been waiting for the release of a limited edition print for ages- released monday morning. Managed to get a copy, but when we tried to pay our credit card was declined. Anyway today get a letter to call fraud dept- turns out they had declined payment because they thought it was suspicious. They apologised, but it's too late now, prints sold out within an hour. Ffs what's the point of a credit card if they don't let you use it???

OP posts:

LesserOfTwoWeevils · 02/11/2011 11:53

But when the card was declined couldn't you have called the bank straight away to find out why? Then it might have got sorted in time.

worraliberty · 02/11/2011 11:53

Well I'm sure you'd be grateful if it had been cloned.

It's a shame that happened, but why didn't you ring them at the time and sort it out there and then?

I sometimes get this with my CC company and a quick call sorts it out.

ripstheirthroatoutliveupstairs · 02/11/2011 11:53

YANBU, surely the bank could have contacted you to see whether you ordered this item.
Is it a super rare thing or will one be re sold soon?

onadifferentplanettoday · 02/11/2011 11:54

if you knew the money was available on your card,why didn't you call the bank straight away while still in the shop. We had this happen once when trying to book a holiday I knew the money was there but the card was declined (it was xmas time and i had had used the card rather more often than usual). a quick call and it was all sorted.

Original poster

ginmakesitallok · 02/11/2011 11:58

didn't ring them at the time because a. we were trying to do it quickly before heading out to work and b. message we got was that paypal were declining the card, so we thought it was a problem with paypal. It was a brian viveros print- signed limited edition.

OP posts:

gazzalw · 02/11/2011 12:01

Think the banks are almost getting over-zealous about these things. I went to pay for a bathroom suite at a nearby (note about a mile from our home not the other end of the country) DIY superstore. Whilst the amount I was paying was clearly more than my usual £20 - £50 expenditures/withdrawals, it was not a huge amount by a lot of people's standards. I had also just been paid so knew that there wasn't an issue about fund levels....It was actually quite embarrassing especially as I didn't have a mobile on me and there were no cashpoints close-to-hand

I seem to remember in years gone by the vendors often got the bank on the phone and you had the opportunity there/then to answer additional security questions to confirm identity...

When we had our bathroom fitted and it was going to cost several thousand pounds, DW ended up writing to our bank just to flag up that we would be writing out a cheque after transferring funds across accounts just so they didn't pull a similar stunt...

I guess maybe you need to consider flagging up to the bank that you are going to be making such a purchase. Personally think it's ridiculous that you almost have to ask permission to access your own money these days - we have all the rotten fraudsters to 'thank' for that

PopcornMouse · 02/11/2011 12:03

YANBU

One time, my debit card went missing so I called the bank and cancelled it, thinking I could survive using the creditcard belonging to the same bank that I had but never really used. 3 days later the bank cancelled my credit card because of "unusual levels of activity" no sh*t sherlock. When I phoned to complain, they suggested I "borrow money from a friend" til my new debit card turned up (as they had closed my local branch a year previously). Said debit card was then lost in the post as it was not sent recorded, and all told, it took 3 weeks to get a new card.

Banks just do. not. care.

MrsTwinks · 02/11/2011 12:09

YANBU. Banks suck. They cancelled my card when we were on honeymoon. I had told them we were going, paid for my currency, flights, purchases in departures and hotel on the card yet it was "unusual activity" to use the exact same card at a restaurant in Rome a day later. Idiots!!! They've also replaced my dad's debit card with a new, cancelled card once, just before he went on holiday. That was not fun.

scaryteacher · 02/11/2011 12:13

I get pissed off when I use my Lloyds debit card to withdraw cash in Belgium. The card is declined at the cashpoint; phone bank, 'Oh it was abroad' so we declined it....and where do I live dickheads, and you know this and have my address? Belgium.

StopRainingPlease · 02/11/2011 12:28

Yeah, banks are rubbish! My branch once froze my account by mistake(!) when they wanted an updated signature. I couldn't use the ATM, or my debit card, despite having money in my account. I phoned up the central number, but they couldn't sort it. Only the branch could sort it, and of course the call centre couldn't give me a number for the branch .

Gonzo33 · 02/11/2011 12:55

My Dad's received a call at 0100 one morning from his Ccard provider. He was asked if he had just tried to withdraw cash on it as it was unusual behaviour. He hadn't. His Ccard was still in his wallet. So you could take this one way or the other.

Naoko · 02/11/2011 13:33

It's infuriating isn't it. And it doesn't help either! I went on holiday last year and actually told my bank I'd be in Italy so they wouldn't assume fraud and freeze it when they saw it being used abroad. Last day of the holiday, I try to get a sum of money out of a cashpoint to pay the hotel bill, and it doesn't let me. Rang the bank, and they have somehow failed to notice that if I'm in Italy, and someone is using my card to buy £500 worth of carpets in Nottingham, which is nowhere near to my home anyway, something really fishy is going on. Card had been cloned, account was empty.

(I got it all back, but I had to borrow money from my dad to pay the hotel bill on another card, and it was not the nice relaxing end to a lovely holiday we were hoping for....)

scaryteacher · 02/11/2011 13:55

It also enrages me when I ring them with a query and they tell me to go 'in branch' (wtf happened to the article, 'the' branch?), and when I point out they don't have Lloyds in Belgium I get an 'oh yeah' and a giggle.

stickylittlefingers · 02/11/2011 14:00

scaryteacher all the time I lived in Ireland, Natwest had my address down as Iran and it was impossible to get them to change it - for 6 years! This led to many a merry dance.

All I can say OP is to have at least a couple of CCs. It's good to have a master card and a visa if you're abroad somewhere where one or the other is more used. How very annoying for you tho.

AnonWasAWoman · 02/11/2011 16:03

I suppose we'd be furious if they weren't careful. They can be useless though. My brother rang his bank and let them know to expect he'd have activity spread over several countries as he was driving through Europe. They cancelled his card because 'your card was used in France and Germany within the same week'. No, really?

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