Reasons Nationwide’s block on my credit card makes no sense
Nationwide put a “hold” on my credit card yesterday due to a transaction from a well known bricks & mortar retailer’s online store (and not one that is about to go bankrupt either).
What I don’t understand is:
- The retailer whose transaction triggered the block is one that I’d bought from several times before using the same credit card. The last time was as recently as October. Why can’t Nationwide use my purchase history?
- Why do I have to wait over 24 hours for my card provider to tell me they’ve blocked my card?
- Nationwide froze my card recently — beginning of November — yet seem not to understand why I consider repeated blocking to be unacceptable.
- Both times they froze my card at the weekend: But their security department is shut (!), so I can’t unblock the card. Why don’t card operators have 24/7 support?
- Putting a “hold” on my card actually stops other transactions rather than putting them on hold! I have to contact each company and ask them to retry payment — Nationwide won’t — and I have to hope that those firms are organised enough to try again. One of them has already tried the payment three times in the last day.
- Amazon appears to have better understanding of my purchase history than my financial institutions. I can go back about five years of transactions there, but a credit card company has trouble with a history of much more than five weeks!
Nationwide isn’t alone here. I had a similar discussion with my previous credit card provider several years ago when they blocked my card due to three online purchases on the same day. That bank has recently been re-capitalised.
Perhaps this is why the financial sector is stuffed?
Hi Ian,
I have the same issues with Nationwide. I am on a long trip in South America and understand that they want to protect “their”? money.
But I fully agree that they need to have 24/7 support if they decide to block cards at random. My card is now blocked for the THIRD time within 2 months. Of course I told them many times that I am in Chile!!
If the Nationwide online reputation team is listening. We want 24/7 customer service if you decide to randomly block our cards!!
br
Andre
André
March 1, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Update: I wrote to them via secure message just to receive the response: You have to call us *argh* I would have thought secure message is enough (since you need login details etc).
On the positive side. They actually called me on Wednesday since I did not call Monday or Tuesday and reactivated my card. I hope this is the last time but fear it will happen again
André
March 5, 2009 at 12:26 pm
André – Good luck. Hopefully, Nationwide will realise why not having 24/7 support makes no sense, eventually.
Like you, I don’t see the point of secure messaging on financial sites. As soon as anything happens, they tend to say that’s no longer ‘safe’ so what’s the point.
Ian Fogg
March 18, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi i actually work for Nationwide credit card services, hence the reason i remain anonymous, 24/7 customer support does appear to be on the way, certainly with the facility to remove blocks of credit cards, i do tend to agree with the above opinions especially considering the credit card is popular for usage abroad and people calling will have different time zones.
Anonymous
July 1, 2009 at 12:00 am
That’s great to hear. Let me know when 24×7 arrives and I’ll post an update.
Ian Fogg
August 11, 2009 at 9:43 pm
its nationwides money if they want to block the card thats upto them and imagine if there was fraud on the card would you be willing to pay for it, no you wouldnt, people use credit cards because of the protection they get with fraud, well that protection has a price and that price is regular checks on your card even if you did use the same brick and mortar store 20 times in the last 24 hours.
IDIOTS
July 6, 2009 at 5:27 pm
It’s not “Nationwide’s money” you cretin.
ruffley
December 30, 2011 at 11:13 am
Just had my card cancelled because it was used in a “potentially compromised location”, now while i don’t object to that in principal i have several issues with the way Nationwide handle things.
- Opening line of the phone call: “you’ve called us after receiving a letter about your blocked card.” …no, i’ve called you because my card stopped working this morning, i’m not going to wait for you to send me a letter about it. Sending a letter to tell you they’ve blocked your card is far too slow. What about people that aren’t even in the country.
- Why can’t they publish a direct phone number for the department that deal with blocked cards, instead of forcing us to call the main number, be put on hold for half an hour, then answer a load of security questions, only to be told that they need to transfer you to another department… At which point you’re put on hold again for another half an hour and have to answer the same security questions all over again. (presumably just in-case you’ve gotten so bored with the hold music that you’ve given your phone to someone else in the time you’ve been waiting)
- And to top it all off, they said they couldn’t tell me where this “potentially compromised location” was. So in 10 days when i eventually get a new working card, i could go out and at the first place i use it have the same thing happen all over again.
InsaneLampshade
August 28, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I’ve decided to cancel my card.
Earlier today, yet again Nationwide blocked my card. Astonishingly this was the (only) reason they’ve given me when I phoned them:
“An extremely large payment to a [telecoms/tv/broadband firm].”
It was actually just 280ukp. And, I have a monthly payment going to this firm every month, and have done for about two years. When I joined them those two years ago I paid a one-off fee of about 150ukp to the same firm. The firm is a blue chip and not some corner shop or individual too. But Nationwide decided this was a suspicious payment and blocked the card.
Oh and as everyone else here has found out the Nationwide credit card helpline doesn’t operate outside of working hours. So, the only way I found this out — as today is a public holiday — was to phone the “report a card lost/stolen” number and then talk my way through to someone that could answer me. They could confirm the cause but could not do anything about it as the correct department was closed.
I’m off and I recommend everyone else does likewise.
Ian Fogg
April 5, 2010 at 11:35 pm
I’ll be surprised if they’re not all just as bad.
Michael Stevens
April 6, 2010 at 11:06 am
Well Nationwide are getting badder and badder.
Look, if you’re in trouble with your Nationwide credit card and you have a current account with them, I have only one piece of advice.
Get that money out of there.
Also my 2006 credit card agreement was flawed.
http://www.bank.si/nationwide
Julian
May 30, 2010 at 8:44 pm
customer service with nationwide is a nightmare when there is a problem it is better to pay the o/s balance and destroy the card
colin skinner
June 28, 2010 at 11:44 am
they tried to take a minimum payment from a bank account I no longer had. I paid the outstanding balance in full before the due date so owed them nothing. They then charged me £12 for not being able to collect the £5 min payment….
Spent several hours and £££££s trying to correct their error. will just pay off my balance and destroy the card. Branch staff cannot discuss problems going back to Natwest.
colin skinner
June 28, 2010 at 11:50 am
Just had my NW debit card card blocked after trying to attempt an internet purchase for £7.50 from site that I have used many times with the same card. The card is now permanently blocked for any internet transactions. I then phoned up Nationwide special inquires 01793 653000 (not on their site!). So the poor excuse goes ‘card details potentially compromised with the particular website but no evidence. The transaction was also Visa verified. So NW customer services dumbo then says I will have to cancel your card to protect me from fraud. How long does it take to get a new card? 7-10 working days! So I said I need it sooner but thats the best they can do. You might as well open another account in a new bank or building society in that time frame.
Also the mentioned blocked transaction I had to eventual do with my credit card (Nationwide) which went through no problems. Nationwide are absolutely incompetent. A fraud policy of preventing people from withdrawing money from accounts which I’m sure is very good for their interest and lending but they may find that most customers think the service is very poor.
The only positive thing I can say about NW is that they e-savings plus accounts gives a very good interest rate.
Dan Whalley
March 9, 2011 at 4:59 pm