To Think That This Is Ridiculous (Fraud Block On My Card) & That Lloyds Fraud Dept Could Have Done More ??

[RockinHippy]

I'm away from home, in a town I visit very often as my DF lives here, my DM too before she died several years ago. Today, twice my card was declined in 2 different shops, both purchases under £15.

I panicked after the second one, as you do, as I know there is plenty of money in the account. So rang the bank for help - 20 minutes to get through, the usual ream of security questions, to be told there is a "fraud block" on my card & I will need to speak to that department - further 20 minutes on hold whilst they pass me through

Turns out they have blocked my account for 2 reasons, 1, I made 2 transactions with Vodaphone on the same day - something I do EVERY month, as I'm topping up mine & DDs mobile phones. 2. I have made several transactions in Liverpool, which I was told is a high risk area for cloned cards - turns out to be Merseyside as I am not in Liverpool, but Southport, "several transactions was actually 3, all under £20

. I asked why my account history wasn't checked before blocking my card, as it would show that I have been visiting & using this card here & in Liverpool itself every 2-3 months for some 20 plus years. It would also show that the double Vodaphone transaction happens every month.

They guy could not give me an answer, other than "its all automated" Nor could he help me by unblocking my card. Not even when I told him they have ruined my stay here as I have no other cards with me & that I was meant to be treating DD to a clothes shopping spree & DF to a meal out tonight.

Despite my telling them a whole load of details of comings & goings into the account, they insist it can still only be unblocked with a pin number, they say they have left on my answer machine - at home, where I am not & DH is away too. Otherwise I have to go into the local branch tomorrow with photo ID - as I don't drive & don't need a F""ing passport to travel to Southport, I have none, so 1,1/4 hours of hanging on my mobile phone later, getting nowhere & I am still shafted

Basically its ruined our stay, we have no money to do any of the things planned & means we have to go home early.

DH isn't at home, doesn't have our joint & main account card with him, but thankfully he had the idea to transfer the bit if cash he could access into DDs bank account, which will at least mean we can get home comfortably

AIBU to think this is one big F"" up on Lloyds part & they should have been able to do more to help

The security pin has to be given over the phone along with security questions & is only valid for a short period of time

I get blocked by a different bank every other week - I do a lot of online shopping! Either they call or I call, security questions then through to the fraud dept. More questions then it takes about a minute to unblock.

Pain the the arse but at least they're doing their job!

I live just over the English side of the English/Welsh border. We went out for the day once, to a town 15 miles away but in Wales. Card got blocked and a new one had to be sent out (5 working days) because I'd failed to tell them I was going abroad. 15 miles, to Wales. That was HSBC. They were insistent that I was in a foreign country and should have told them. Several months previously, I'd flown to France and spent on the same card in 3 different towns and cities with no problems. There is no logic to it.

I don't bank with lloyds but can't you log into online banking and change your contact numbers giving your mobile number instead. Then get them to resend the PIN number. Or, do an online transfer into your dds account of all the money you were planning on spending and use her account instead. Apologies if I have misunderstood but i think you said your card was blocked not your whole account (obv if your account is blocked totally this won't be possible).

I lost my cashpoint
Card recently (Hsbc) and someone handed it in to my local branch who called me. I had no photo id on me when I went to collect but my signature matched the file version and he just handed it back!

People aren't being sceptical about the "automatic" excuse, are they? They're just saying it's a shit excuse when someone must have programmed the computer and has clearly not done their job properly. For instance, if your customer's home address is abroad, it can't be too hard to set up the system so that it doesn't block the card automatically just because it's being used in the customer's home country.

Also if you have an answer machine at home cant you remote log in? I'm sure we can on ours but I would need to Google how to do it!

U.K. Banks don't generally set up systems to factor in customers living abroad. Card will be blocked not account - I'm sure Op can withdraw money at a branch & use online & telephone banking to transfer money to husband or daughter

I have to say I'm surprised by this as all my interactions with Lloyds anti-fraud have been really good. My card was cloned in Liverpool - they picked up on it straight away, contacted me about the transactions (small ones to see whether it had worked, no doubt bigger ones would have followed) and I got all the money back and a new card. Yes, I had to go into branch with ID to get cash out for a few days but that was a minor inconvenience.

The second one was a bit odd - they queried a booking with Stena line, which is one that I do every 10 weeks or so because my parents live in Holland and are not well) - but it was all done via automated call, I confirmed that yes, it was me trying the transaction and I was able to do it again straight away. On the whole I'd rather have a bit of paranoia than have my account raided by criminals.

JudyCoolibar yes i'm seriously surprised! I've worked for a banks.
If you fail security through any section they won't continue the call, not they just won't unblock the card.
They couldn't continue the call at all, or give any info about accs or cards.
I'll be adding lloyds to my list of places to avoid
Not a chance would i have an account with them.

Kali you'd better add Halifax & bank of Scotland to your list as well 😉

I have an account with TSB (formally Lloyds TSB) and they have blocked my card EVERY TIME I do an online shop with Asda and Tesco. Worst one was last December, 2 days before Christmas. Had amended the order and was checking it out when the transaction declined. At 11.55pm. Only had 5 mins to get the card unblocked and put the order through.

The woman at the Fraud depth was amazing though. Explained to her the urgency of getting my card unblocked and she managed to get donew with a minute to spare! She even stayed on the phone to make sure the order went through.

I eventually raised a complaint against TSB due to the constant card blocking.

Not sure if they still do it as I now do my online shopping with my Santander card

ny thanks if they have the same lax to data protection then i will.

vod yes mine was taken off in minutes.
Annoying thing is they used to ring me before blocking my card to check if i was making any big or unusual ( to them) purchases.
Last time they blocked it they denied ever having ringing me and checking

I've worked for HSBC, fail security and your getting told the sum total of Jack shit and your told to go to a branch with ID to unlock telephone banking. I couldn't even tell you your own name if you asked me let alsone basic banking details. Do Lloyds seriously divulge info after a fail? That's shocking!

Op didn't fail security - just couldn't get pin to unblock card

I've had similar issues with First Direct and I now never going anywhere without more than one card just in case

Both dh and I have banked with Lloyds for years and have never had any kind of transaction blocked. I've bought cars and holidays with no problems. They did ring us however when they had noticed fraudulent activity and were amazingly quick in getting transactions cancelled or refunded. I bank online and can move money around in minutes. They text me with stuff occasionally. I think they're great. I'm sorry you've had problems Op but sometimes they don't do too bad a job. I second the previous suggestion; can't you transfer money on to your dds card? With the Lloyds app you can send money instantly.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig m&s have rung me and blocked my card due to suspicious activity.
My suspicious activity? Ebay.
I wish i could say using ebay was unusual

It wouldn't be very unusual in this house either.

Sorry so slow to update, I was travelling/recovering from travelling

Thanks for all of the replies - really scary how many of us deal with this & so regularly too

I will try & answer a few points, but bear with me, I don't travel well at the best of times, so I'm still a bit worse for wear right now & can't answer individual names, please excuse typos/shite grammar right now too

I definitely didn't fail the security questions, annoyingly I passed it twice, once when I first got through to the normal customer services & then after being passed through to Fraud after holding for over 20 f'ing minutes on my mobile yet more, different security questions. I agree the account activity ones are ridiculous & hard, especially with a joint account, but I was lucky i did know the answer to the account activity question they asked me this time.

They were very open about discussing comings & goings from the account, so definitely weren't fobbing me iff with that - though I now know they were in other ways, so I suspect I might have caught them at home time, when they were too keen to get out & not help. With hindsight, I'm pretty sure from what saud, it was my topping up both DD & my own phone credit on the same day that triggered it, as that was the first question the guy asked - had I made both payments - which of course I had & do every month

I did eventually get a reply from Lloyds facebook page. They have passed me onto customer services, who will ring me in the week - they asked if I was offered a complaint procedure (forget the term) I had asked during the Fraud Dept call if I could raise it as a complaint & was told no, I had to do that via my branch - which turns out just wasn't true

DH was great, he was much closer to home than I was & headed back, grabbed a pile of all of our ID & headed to our branch - he said that the manager there was great, but even he couldn't believe how stupidly hard headed the fraud dept were, nor why they had blocked my card in the first place as he told them that there was no unusual activity on my account at all - DH says it took the manager 1,1/2 hours of cajoling with the fraud dept, practically begging them to see sense & lift the block as he was looking at a pile of ID, plus he knew my DH etc - over 1,1/2 hours!! For even him to be heard & he's the manager of our bank - how bloody ridiculous!

Unfortunately, by the time the block was finally lifted, I had already set off home & crap phone/no wifi connections meant I didn't get the news until we were almost home, but at least we could get some decent food before getting on our last train - its a very long journey with nothing but sweaty cheese wraps & water to eat/drink, thank you Lloyds Fraud debt

I won't travel with just one card again, learnt my lesson there thats for sure, though having had a bag stolen on the same train in the past, where I lost all of my cards & had to frantically remember what they where to cancel them, I thought it was a sensible thing to do - nope

Would internet bank have meant I could get passed this. & still get access to money ?? - I would have thought if a card was blocked, they would block that too??

I suppose I should think myself lucky - at least I wasn't abroad as some of you have been when this has happened !!

Glad I have Natwest reading this.

We used to take bets how long it would take NatWest to block my card in Vegas , quickest was 1 hour slowest a week . My card did get cloned once and a Meal from somewhere I knew I'd never visited on the Strip popped up on my account. I called them straight away and they cancelled the card (they said) and ordered me a new one. Two days later more transactions appeared and I got the 3rd degree. I was asked had I ever visited any of the places where there were charges. I said yes and the girl nearly wet herself with excitement that she could blame me until I continued "around six years ago". NatWest in branch kept pushing me to complain in writing which seemed odd until I got the reply from complaints letting me know the fraud dept hadn't bothered cancelling my card the first time I rang. It took nearly three weeks before I had a new card and despite their assurances it would be the same pin, it wasn't so further delays again.

My favourite though was when I rang the US to buy a flight with miles with Delta as it saved me £100 in taxes compared with buying it through their UK site. After buying it I went to my local corner shop where I use the card most days . Their system decided to ignore the Delta transaction was a telephone transaction and blocked my card as I couldn't be in Atlanta and the U.K. the same day. I've also had it locked after buying breakfast at Heathrow then lunch in Chicago later the same day as I couldn't possibly be in the UK and the US on the same day (clearly a transaction at Heathrow wasn't a big enough clue). I've since dumped Nat West and my new bank not only has a better system as I am get to get a block but also produce and issue debit cards in branch in 20 minutes so no more waiting for replacement cards to arrive.

trafalgargal please do reveal this hallowed place which can magic up cards as if they were just a piece of plastic with a few numbers and a chip? If you get a replacement card can you get one with the same number on?