To think my bank shouldn’t be able to stop me?

[MovinginCircless]

I’ve been trying to make a purchase for the last two months from Dior. It’s a one off treat that costs £600ish.

Every single time I’ve gone to buy it my payment gets declined. I’ve contacted my bank numerous times to ask if there was a block. After a month they finally admitted they had been blocking the payment. Confirmed block lifted but I’m still being declined.

I’ve now been told today that they will never allow me to purchase from Dior as I could say it’s fraud and sell the item on at full price. Surely if I have the money then I can spend it how I want??

He told me twice about buying high end goods to resell at full value .. which for some reason maybe they think I would do

Is this illegal though? Surely loads of people do this on eBay!

Definitely switch to a new account which won't try this nonsense with you!

It can be quite strange why banks query one thing and not another. Eg I have paid huge sums at times for things £15k etc and no query and then I will do something quite small and it will be rejected so I then pay another way - one reason to have different cards. I have no problems with money so never had a problem having a credit card on which there is never anything bought on credit - I just choose to pay it off right away.

This happened to me, not with the same brand. I think the issue was less around who the retailer was and more around what their payment request looked like to the bank. Which you cannot see.
I also spoke to fraud etc to "unblock" it but had it declined again.

From working for a bank, I can tell you that the people who answer the phone will have very little idea why it's been blocked. It won't be in case you sell it "at full price" (they wouldn't know the value of the item anyway), they just made that up.

If I were you, I would open a second bank account, one of the app based ones. I use Monzo, but there's also Starling and some others. Transfer the money to there and use that card to buy it.

It's always worth having a second bank account anyway I think, in case something happens - card gets swallowed; card stops working; app down etc. I've found it very useful to have Monzo as a spare.

The first excuse is that they had fraud with laptops. I pointed out I work in IT and have previously bought 2 laptops and a phone outright with their credit card. This was from online only retailers. Then they just wouldn't give me answers and kept telling me to go into a branch with ID to verify it was me. I went into my local branch the first time and the staff politely said they had no idea why I was sent to them as they couldn't help.

When I complained to the financial ombudsman service. I spoke to a guy on the phone and was told it was like pulling teeth getting information from them but eventually they admitted no one wanted to deal with the issue so they made up stuff.

Thing is at the time Nationwide had more information about my income and profession than Barclaycard who had no issue approving the transaction.

The fraud on my Barclaycard was smaller more everyday transactions e.g. the type of transactions I do with a debit card.

this might sound strange but where you requesting delivery to the address the card was registered to?

I bought a bag from LV and the order kept getting rejected. I eventually worked out that the delivery address had to be the one that was registered to my card (home), but I was requesting delivery to my workplace.

it could be something similar?

Section 75 means if a retailer goes bust you get your money back

With a debit card it is more time limited.

Hi I have these types of problems. Which bank is it? I now have 2-3 accounts and thinking of another online.

I've not read the full thread so apologies; but open a Chase account (done pretty much instantly and you get a digital debit card to use) transfer the money over and at least you'll get 1% of the purchase price as cashback.

Then switch NatWest to one of accounts offering a switch incentive

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/

Did you get it @MovinginCircless ? Hope so!

Since this post I have heard of so many instances of this and my card has been randomly declining transactions too. I have two debit cards - my current account and an old one that I’ve just never closed but never use with about £50 in it. So I don’t have loads of options when my current account gets declined. It’s been for £6 or £30 in the Co-op and a chinese takeaway too. Ring and they say they have no explanation. Never had this trouble before.

Colleague said there seems to be some bank to bank feuds going on - her credit card provider rejecting payments from her debit account, but accepting them from another account.

But in the meantime she has incurred late payment fees. But she’s PAID they’ve rejected it for no reason! She has spotted a trend with which banks don’t like the others. All extremely bizarre. She told them she hasn’t paid late they have chosen to reject the payment and that’s an issue between the banks - not her. To which I agree.

What is going on?

Exactly. I don’t have a credit card and don’t want the hassle of one. it’s another admin exercise I don’t need. When I was skint I had one and juggled the same £1k on and off it each month!