To think the bank should refund us

[broccolibush]

I noticed a transaction on my bank account that wasn’t authorised by either DH or me - for nearly £1,000 to a taxi company in South America - so called the bank to report it as a fraudulent transaction and ask for the money to be returned. It was a debit card payment.

We don’t spend using debit cards on the account (do day to day spending on credit cards and clear the balance every month) and we’re in the UK not in South America. The bank have said that the payment was made using chip and pin and have refused to accept it was fraudulent as the card is still in our possession, albeit many thousands of miles from where the transaction was made.

AIBU to think that there is no way a debit card in the UK could have been legitimately used for a chip and pin transaction in South America and that as a result refusing to accept this as fraud because the card is in our possession is insane? Has anyone else been in a similar situation and found a way to get their money back? I don’t fancy being £1k down to a criminal aided by the bank.

Of course they should.

Yes escalate the fraud

Radio 4 did something on this, Taxi companies in Birmingham were being used and charged to random peoples cards in the UK again with chip and pin.

When I worked for Barclays if you disputed a card transaction they would get your permission to look into the payment, refunding it whilst enquiries are made and the account holder gives permission for the bank to debit the account back if it turns out the payment was genuine.

Just make a complaint and take it further. You'll get refunded.

This happened to my brother, well the same sort of thing. He was with HSBC.

Someone bought flights and the there were loads of transactions abroad. HSBC said that even though he could prove it wasn't actually him, he could have given his card to someone else. It was all,very frustrating as the fraudulent activity was flights which obviously you need ID for.

He didn't get the money back and the whole thing took up weeks of his time.

My card got used once for a large sum of money overseas and I got a text from my bank saying they had blocked it. They asked me to contact them to authorise it if it was me!

Do you remember when this was? Would be handy if I could find it.

We’re both pretty gobsmacked that such an unusual transaction wasn’t flagged/rejected. We don’t go abroad (I am not well enough to travel), we don’t use the debit card much, we can prove we weren’t where the taxi was. The bank said the POS machine thingy (for a taxi) might not have been in the same country as the taxi company. Riiiiigggggghhhhhhhttttttt.

I found HSBC really good for this - my card was somehow used to buy petrol in Alabama(?!?!?) and they literally refunded it while i was in the on the phone. I’d keep pushing

I’m currently fighting something like this now - my brand new credit card was used to buy 6k of furniture in the US, despite not having even used the card myself yet. Bank is now refusing us as customers and wants to close our accounts after I’ve suggested that there is an internal security breach of new card numbers and ccvs being sold on.

Make a complaint and escalate to FOS if it’s rejected.

@broccolibush I don't remember the date of that one sorry, I know it was on You and Yours in the last year im pretty sure. Definitely keep pushing for a refund, I bet the bank know how the fraudsters do this, you wont be the only person.

@broccolibush Citizen's advice say if you say your card was not used by you, it is up to your bank to prove otherwise. If your bank wont refund you it also says report them to trading standards.

Thank you @acornsarenottheonlyfruit I’ll see if I can find it using you & yours. Googling BBC and card fraud brought up a lot of results! I also agree that they will know exactly how it’s done. We reported to the police and they told us they have had similar complaints from the location where DH used his card (the machine rejected his credit card so he used his debit card which is a once in a blue moon occurrence) and that they’ve been removing devices from payment machines there over the last few weeks.

I spent yesterday reading all the statute and industry rules and know they have to reimburse us. I also know that they will try to avoid it. I am willing to take this all the way to the Ombudsman and beyond if I have to (though I really don’t want to). It just leaves a really nasty taste that they are disputing this. I’ve banked with them for 30 years so they should see that this payment isn’t from us - it’s so far outside our normal spending patterns it may as well have been on Pluto.

The bank has allowed someone to steal our money and is now being dickish about returning it. DH is all for moving banks after it’s sorted because he’s furious with them effectively calling us liars/fraudsters. I can’t say I blame him tbh.

Well the bank have said it’s not fraud as it’s “not the spend pattern we would expect from an opportunistic fraudster” so off to the ombudsman I go…

Does anyone bank with anyone nice?

File a direct debit indemnity claim.

If they don't comply, escalate to the FOS.

Have a read of this www.fca.org.uk/consumers/unauthorised-payments-account

Good luck with FOS but be prepared to wait as they’re very busy. If you win, ask them to include compensation for the time you’ve spent without the money in your account.

We’ve never had any problems with Nawest. They also pay £10 an hour for your time so log every time you call, including wait times. I didn’t even ask for it. The complaints guys said ‘how long do you think you’ve spent dealing with the complaint?’ I said ‘about 6 I guess’ and that’s when he said they pay £10 an hour in compensation. That’s after DH and I got £200 due to the actions of a staff member in branch, threatening to close our account after we enquired how long the wait was going to be 😆

*NatWest

Just realised my suggestion about the tenner an hour only really makes sense if you’re already with NatWest or if your bank does the same but you can always ask…

Obtain name of the bank employee who declined to compensate, and use it when escalating your complaint.

They also pay £10 an hour for your time so log every time you call, including wait times.

That's really good!

Nationwide has been really good when I had some direct debits set up fraudulently on my account. I was able to speak to a real person pretty quickly and the money was refunded within an hour. All the DDs were to 2 different insurance companies and in the end, I got the info from the DDs and rang the insurance companies who were also really helpful. I now check which DDs I have on that account every week or so.

I think Nationwide is also paying money into your account to switch, according to MSE.

This is shocking. It doesn't matter what pattern they expect. It's either a fraudster or a glitch in their system!

If I don’t inform my bank I’m going abroad then they refuse transactions.

I’m with RBS and First Direct.