 Poster: A snowHead
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I had a potentially problematic issue with my bank last week whilst away in Italy. I visited a local cash point and tried to withdraw some cash. The machine would not accept my PIN. I phoned the bank in question and discovered that my account had been blocked from withdrawing money outside of the UK. What's more, they couldn't make the facility available until the following day at the earliest.
Apparently, I now have to notify them each and every time I leave the country so they can "unblock" access. Apart from the inconvenience of this, I'm not too happy about letting a third party know specific dates and times that my house will be unoccupied.
Has anyone else experienced this or is it yet another new "security" measure that's being introduced to make life a shade more difficult?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Clive, I think it is normal to advise your bank you will be using your card abroad, but not to need to do so every time you are overseas - my bank does not need that.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Nationwide like me to advise them for credit Card use (dates, where, etc) but not for use of Debit Card in ATM's.
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It is supposed to be a security measure, but there's no reason why they can't just take your mobile number and call you. One of my cards was blocked once, but never again after I gave the bank a huge b0llocking. Failing that, set up a travel-specific account with e.g. Nationwide.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Clive, there is something on our online banking (Barclays) which asks us to record dates we will be abroad, I assume it is an automatic process, however I don't bother as we use a Nationwide card when we go to France/Europe, and they don't ask me.
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I have had issues with credit cards not accepting large transactions (lift passes!) in Italy. On speaking to the issuer, apparently Italy is considered high risk, so they advise always notifying them in advance of going there. never had an issue in any other european country.
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Clive, Which bank? Might be useful to know if any of us bank with the same. 
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Hmm. I have just been looking at the HSBC security advice
| Quote: |
Before you leave the country
* Make sure your contact details are up-to-date, including your mobile number, so that HSBC can contact you while you're abroad in case we suspect fraudulent activity or unusual spending patterns on your account. You can do this from Internet Banking or by contacting us.
* Always consider taking more than one method of payment, e.g. HSBC debit card, HSBC credit card, cash and travellers' cheques.
* Let us know if you're going abroad. We automatically monitor foreign transactions on your account to help protect you and to prevent fraud. This will significantly reduce the chances of your transactions being referred or declined. However, this is not guaranteed, and security checks on attempted transactions may still be carried out.
* Make a note of HSBC's contact details before you leave the country so that you can contact us if you require our assistance while you're away. |
My guess is that how that is applied will vary from customer to customer, depending on use profile.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The bank in question is HBOS. Even before this incident I was thinking of changing banks due to poor rates of interest on my savings. The problem last week only serves to make it more of a priority.
If I had been in a situation where cash was needed urgently (for example, I had a bad cycling accident a few years ago in Greece and I needed several hundred euros at very short notice) the bank would have been unable to reactivate my card for at least 15 hours, even though they had confirmed my identity. If they insist on putting these measures in place, they should at least provide a 24 hour service ready to rectify any issues that arise.
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I had the same issue in Italy last summer... went to a cashpoint to withdraw some money for a taxi to the airport to get my flight home and hey presto... ATM wouldn't let me or my wife withdraw... tried another ATM... same problem.... thankfully we managed to borrow some money from an italian friend but how embarrasing... needless to say my bank got a serious bo11ock1ng when I got home and threatened to move my personal accounts, savings accounts, mortgage and both business accounts to a competitor and they promised it wouldn't happen again.... it hasn't...
Security is one thing but if a bank expects me to trawl through endless pages of small print to summise that I MIGHT be best contacting them before i go abroad if I want to withdraw MY money that I've LENT to THEM for safekeeping in return for ZILCH interest then I'll bank somewhere else.... who do these people think they are... they wreck the worlds economies with their greed and incompetence, pay them selves enormous bonuses for doing so out of MY MONEY, and then make it is addificult as possible for their few remaining customers to utilise the services they promised were so much better than any other banks when they used it as a carrot to get you to LEND to them in the first place...
FYI this was Lloyds TSB, which I now apparently part own anyway as a taxpayer, whether I wanted to or not!!!!
'nuff said.... rant over... 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I have had problems in the past with my Goldfish card, here and abroad with overzealous security. I try to remember (but usually fail) to tell them if I'm travelling. They seem to have their automated alert system better tuned now, as I haven't had a problem for many months. My bank, First Direct, also likes to know when I travel; I found this out when I asked them for a quote for foreign currency. I usually forget, but it hasn't yet cause a problem when using my DC. I asume that if the use of the CC or DC use fits your usual pattern, the sirens don't sound. I don't bother to try to remember to inform my other CC companies as I rarely use other CCs.
I vaguely remember that my bank or a CC company e-mailed or 'phoned me once when I was travelling to check that I was actually in whichever country it was.
I don't particularly mind. It's an easy win for the bank, may save a few quid in fraudulent use, and it causes me almost no incovenience. I got stroppy with Goldfish at one time as they quite frequently refused a transaction, for example because it was the second large one in the day, and made only feeble attempts to contact me. As I say, they are better now.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I guess they want you to inform them via a non-free phone number where they earn a few pence per call, and keep you on the line trying to sell you a new product?
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Even with all of the above, I was glad when they phoned me to advise that the online betting account I had just opened in Thailand was a little suspicious.....
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
I guess they want you to inform them via a non-free phone number where they earn a few pence per call, and keep you on the line trying to sell you a new product?
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andy, would that be a non-free phone line to Calcutta and a new product you neither want nor need?????
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Last year I came back to 3 messages from HSBC fraud since i had used my card aborad and not told them. Luckily my card remained working while I was out there. I think you just need to tell them once and use abroad is not an issue.
I always carry a credit card just in case
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
I think you just need to tell them once and use abroad is not an issue.
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I don't doubt you for a moment narc, but it doesn't make a blind bit of sense.....example.... lets suppose I told my bank in 2006 that I was popping over to Hungary for a long weekend of sitting around in hot springs does that mean that from this point on they won't stop my card anywhere in Europe (or the world for that matter) for security purposes??????? How does me telling them I was going to Hungary make it such that my card isn't being used for fraud anywhere else??? I just don't see the logic....
What the banks need to do is either make it absolutely clear to every customer that they are required to inform their bank in writing everytime they leave the UK OR just allow people to use their cards anywhere in the world without security checks / stops on the card.... I don't mind either way and do appreciate the need for security... what I mind is the fact that I don't know and it's me who as to make the effort to find out when it's my money I want / need to access at a time and in a place that's convenient for me.
What annoys me as much as anything is that if Lloyds had bothered to check my last two or three transactions they may have noticed I'd purchased flights with Ryan Air and also bought 500 euros from them, both by debit card!!! They also allowed three spearate meals on different night to paid for in Rome without seeing the need to stop the card.... Did they bother to check that??? No... they just stopped the card cos I tried to withdraw 100 Euros from a cashpoint in central Rome.... To55ers!!!!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I always advise my card suppliers where and when I am going abroad.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Barclays phoned me within 10 seconds of attempting to use a debit card to withdraw dollars in a mag stripe only machine in Florida in May - once I'd passed some security questions and assured them it was fine they lifted the block.
My braclaycard c/cards nowadays eed 'phoning in advance of travel' which is a PITA as i found out nearly to my cost when trying to pick up a rental at Lyon last november for a trip to tignes.
Personally I'm not that worried about my bank knowing in advance I'm away - after all from my transaction records they can just as easily spot I've used a cash-till in say Glasgow when my home address is in Bristol...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| SnowGod wrote: |
| What annoys me as much as anything is that if Lloyds had bothered to check my last two or three transactions they may have noticed I'd purchased flights with Ryan Air and also bought 500 euros from them, both by debit card!!! They also allowed three spearate meals on different night to paid for in Rome without seeing the need to stop the card.... Did they bother to check that??? No... they just stopped the card cos I tried to withdraw 100 Euros from a cashpoint in central Rome.... To55ers!!!! |
I think that these 'judgments' are made by computers, not people, so the natural flow of 'buy 'plane tix, pay for hotel, buy currency, buy brekkie at airport, use card in beastly foreign country' is lost on them.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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LOL @ richmond,
Yep... you're probably right... doesn't alter the fact that it's my money and I'm the customer and they don't seem to give a damn if the inconvenience me...
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Since they're paying for it, it seems to me theat the least you can do is tell the CC company/bank where you're going to spend their money. A friend of mine always used to send his bank manager a post card from his ski resort or other holiday destination, just to be courteous. Now he's spending his own money, rather than the bank's, I don't think he bothers.
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SnowGod, interesting. I generally have found Lloyds to be OK (apart from here - my card was fraudulently used in the UK so they stopped my card, and I only found out because the online butcher I was trying to buy from on 22nd December told me they couldn't seem to take payment. It didn't seem to occur to Lloyds to call me at home...). Maybe it is just Italy - I've used my cards in some pretty dubious places e.g. Syria, Burma, Israel, with not a whimper out of the bank.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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my mate whilst sking got a text each time he used his card abroad, saying basically call this number if its not you.. despite 5 of these when he cam to pay the hotel bill they still blocked it and he had to call them.. i think he signed up for this service.. thanlkfuly i have never signed up for anything, never say where or when i am going and have so far been lucky
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Used my Mastercard in Italy and the card company rang me within minutes of making the transaction to check it was actually me. I call that good service... 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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queen bodecia, I agree it is good service, why don't they all call though instead of needlessly blocking accounts.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
Since they're paying for it, it seems to me theat the least you can do is tell the CC company/bank where you're going to spend their money. A friend of mine always used to send his bank manager a post card from his ski resort or other holiday destination, just to be courteous. Now he's spending his own money, rather than the bank's, I don't think he bothers.
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It was my money I was spending (or trying to spend)... I was withdrawing money on a debit card from an ATM directly from my current account which was in credit....
I agree there's slightly more of a case for CC payments / cash advances.... but even so I don't think the CC companies make it clear you need to tell them when you're going away... if you watch the barclycard or mastercard adverts its all fine and dandy swanning around the globe spending fortunes on all and sundry but you never see the advert in the Corrie break beginning with a geezer on the phone to mastecard telling them he's off on a round the world cruise do you??? He just appears to be able to pay for everything without his card being declined for security reasons
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Yes having to call before you go away to inform them you are going is a pain
Having to sort things when your card has been used fraudgently is much more of a pain believe me
Then you would be griping on about the banks lack of security
99% of blocks are by the banks computer systems it would take thousands of people to do the same amount of checking
We have a card that is normally only used on holidays and can have no transactions on it for months its hardly surprising if the computer suddenly detects a lot of use it will block the card if the banks not been informed in advance
The time most folk spend planning holidays five minutes informing a bank you will be likely to use your card abroad is hardly going to be a big deal is it?
Moaning about how much the banks are costing us because of their greed is another thing though 
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You know it makes sense.
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I have numerous bank accounts both in uk and germany, none have any such restrictions. The day a bank asks me to inform them of when I'm abroad or blocks me is the day I stop doing business with them.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Timmaah, And are you going to stay with them when one of your cards gets cloned and your account is emptied because it was not blocked?
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Poster: A snowHead
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I agree on banks using some kind of security measure. Having my cards used by someone I didn't know, I echo Garfield's sentiment about the hassle.
That said, the banks haven't done too good a job at balancing the security vs inconvenience it cause, especially regarding forign travel. I was at Turkey when my card was blocked. And that's despite my informing them in advance I would be traveling there!
Now, trying to make a collect call from Turkey would have been interesting, had I not have a local friend who speak the language. The bank totally denied they've blocked the card. Though magically, the card worked after the call!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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First Direct told me last week there is no point letting them know in advance when going abroad - as their systems will block "suspicious" activity even then. It's only when a transaction has been refused and then you phone them that they can lift the block.
I travel most months to destinations all over the world, but this has only started happened this year, TWICE in N.America, and each time I have complained seriously to FD - hopefully they'll pay a bit more attention this time.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Garfield wrote: |
| Timmaah, And are you going to stay with them when one of your cards gets cloned and your account is emptied because it was not blocked? |
You do realize there are ways of preventing this ya? Was a segment about just that on the real hustle the other week.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Barclays have this facility also
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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So what's the upshot of this disussion - would it pay me to tell my bank (one of the big four) when I go away at Easter, I've never had problems before?
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
| Barclays phoned me within 10 seconds of attempting to use a debit card to withdraw dollars in a mag stripe only machine in Florida in May - once I'd passed some security questions and assured them it was fine they lifted the block. |
These types of procedures fly in the face of everything they tell us about security. Someone (or, in fact, anyone) phones you on your mobile, says they are from your bank, and asks you security questions!
I was scammed like this once, and yet many banks etc still do it. I now insist on getting their number and calling them back. Any decent organisation will have a direct line to let you do this. At least then you have a contact number, even for the scamster!
I returned from Austria this month to a message from my card company asking me to call them urgently. They had noticed the foreign transactions and wanted to check them out. I think the warning sign was that a UK transaction went through on the same day (a recurring payment). They did not stop my card though (luckily).
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Lorenzo, when my bank/credit card ring me, they have to go through a security password and pin check before the conversation goes any further. I think this is standard practice...
Never had to let my bank know in advance of my travel plans but they have now rung me in Austria, Spain, Poland and now Italy to check it was me using my card abroad...
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I woudl give any bank short shrift who requires me to inform them when I'm going abroad - it's got F all to do with them. If the card is fraudulently used then I'm covered, so this extra "service" protects the bank, not me. I wouldn't mind them calling me to check a transaction, but if a card was blocked then I would immediately close the account. Having said that, they wouldn't care as I pay off in full every month.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Generally I would not use my bank cards or credit cards in a hole in the wall abroad, [think of the interest!] but on a business trip last year to Malaysia we were all strongly advised to let our banks and cards know. Lots of fraud goes on sadly, and you are talking about a few minutes talking to your bank telling them where you are going to be to get the convenience of getting instant cash. IMO it is not worth getting steamed over. All us nice people have to take the flack for all the nasty people in the world... 
Risk to benefit ratios folks. I speak as someone who did have their credit card cloned somehow, goodness knows. My card provider was very understanding, stopped the card immediately, called me and sorted it all out.
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| Quote: |
Risk to benefit ratios folks. I speak as someone who did have their credit card cloned somehow, goodness knows. My card provider was very understanding, stopped the card immediately, called me and sorted it all out.
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Read the earlier posts. Calling them in advance doesn't work!
Once a life time ago, I work on computer programs to detect patterns. I bet the bank can put in a better automatic detector to get the bad guys without inconvinient the card holder. They just don't bother.
Vote with your wallet. If you don't like them blocking your card, just switch to a bank that don't. Yes, there's risk if your card is stolen. But like other had said, you're protected from the lose. So take your pick of which hassle you'd rather have, not able to have money abroad or having to get a new card if your is cloned/used by other.
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FAQ
