A word of warning - card blocked by Nationwide

[deanobrown]

Originally Posted by Scaramouche

I wish ours was that painless last night. An hour we spent on the phone to them after trying to order currency. In previous years I've never had an issue with HSBC when they've done this before, but last night seemed to be complicated and take ages.

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Really? I haven't had it happen since last year... I really hope they haven't made it more complicated because it really is a chore when you need to get something purchased online!

[skb 123]

Originally Posted by duchy

I try to avoid using the same card at a London airport as I'll be using in the US the same day as the bank don't seem to be able to grasp I can use it at Heathrow and then in New York eight hours later and tend to block. It's only a quick call to unblock but a bit of a nusience.

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A couple of our card providers told us the opposite and actually advised us that using a card in the airport would show them that you are likely to be travelling and make it less likely your card would be blocked.

[LLamb]

Nationwide blocked my credit card recently due to suspicious activity. I’d clicked on a link through Facebook for eventbright to book a Santa visit! But it was at the time of the Facebook security breach. I had to ring up and get the hold removed. They were quite apologetic actually, I’d rather they were over cautious to be honest.

[MrPenguin]

Originally Posted by skb 123

A couple of our card providers told us the opposite and actually advised us that using a card in the airport would show them that you are likely to be travelling and make it less likely your card would be blocked.

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This is correct. Machine learning algorithms will show you're going to be travelling so it's less suspicious.

[amarooney]

Originally Posted by deanobrown

This happens a lot more nowadays...
Last Christmas between October and December my card was stopped THREE TIMES!

Luckily with HSBC they ring you as soon as you have tried to use it, go through a few security questions, explain why it was stopped and then unblock it for you.

It is a real pain, but with all the fraud going on nowadays better safe than sorry!

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Lloyds seem to send texts now as opposed to blocking your card which as happended to me on a couple of occasions.