Debit Card Issues

[Viper201]

I have a Santander Mastercard debit card which I use a lot both in shops and online.

So Mrs V's birthday is approaching so I go online to Next and order a £50 gift card. Payment is declined - contact the bank.
I also go online to M&S and order another £50 gift card. This too is declined with a fraud warning of details not matching. I try again in case I made a mistake but same thing. Finally got both by phoning them up and giving the card details over the phone.

A few weeks prior to this I could not make an online payment to Pets At Home.

Shortly afterwards I bought a washing machine online from John Lewis. It was declined. My wife tried to pay using her laptop in case mine was somehow at fault but it was also declined. I transferred the money to her and she paid online using First Direct. The transaction went straight through.

Thursday I paid for a new windscreen from Autoglass. The next day a message to say the payment had not gone through and to contact my bank.

So I contact Santander and after 55 mins on the phone they could not find the problem as they said a small payment of £37 went through that day using the same card online. Santander say its the retailers who are at fault. I contacted both Autoglass and Next who say its not. The Autoglass payment was in pending apparently but Autoglass could not retrieve it.

Santander customer services rang a short time ago to say its nothing to do with them. I know nothing about this so who to believe?

Thoughts?

[ferret50]

I have had similar issues with Santander over the last few weeks.

1 Declined to transfer £5k to Tesco Bank to set up a FRB,,,ended up sending an old fashioned cheque thingy
2 Declined a payment to a currency exchange where I held an account and make similar buys on a regular basis
3 Refused to move money between my Santander accounts

A total of five lengthy phone calls at my expense saw the first sorted out with a £30 'account adjustment'!

Still fighting regarding the other two, email to Nathan Bostock CEO@ santander.co.uk has been sent.

I have banked with Santander since before they bought out Abbey National, but I am now very, very pissed off with their customer service, branch closures did not help.

[Viper201]

Thanks both.

@ email - new card looks to be a good idea.

@ ferret - this is not my first run in with them but it may be my last at this rate.

[ferret50]

Viper201 said:

@ ferret - this is not my first run in with them but it may be my last at this rate.

My thoughts as well, but unless one is a genius with a clever phone and operating slaps, just where do we go?

[BeeBopp]

The Schemes (Mastercard + VISA) and the payment acquirers (Worldpay, Cashflows, Barclaycard et al) do the fraud checks. The issuing bank is unlikely to be able to tell why a payment was declined.

The merchant will have picked the acquirer. It is possible for them to query why a payment has failed, but it is very rare. We don't see it a lot.

[MitchT]

I had a weird one a couple of weeks ago...

Aldi - Apple pay wouldn't work, nor would the same card used contactless - the terminal said "card type not recognised", but the same card did work with chip and pin.
BM Store - Apple pay wouldn't work but contactless did. Again, same card.

Fine everywhere else and fine at Aldi and BM since.

[superpp]

As Santander haven't really helped you, why give them any loyalty.

Use the current account switching service and move banks, a few will even give you up to £200 for your business.

[Viper201]

Their customer 'services/complaints' treat you like you are the problem so started the switch. Hopefully goes to plan and completes by the 8th Sept.
Chose this date to avoid end of month and start of month payments in and debits.

[Somebody]

I’ve had an account with Santander since the Abbey National days. As already mentioned their CS is carp, so rather than switching I kept the current account open with 10p in credit, periodically moving a few pence to and from a savings account to keep them from going dormant. I still receive postal statements so it costs them a few quid in postage and stationery to service my account every year.

I’m tempted to switch to get the switching bonuses, but need one that does not stipulate having a couple of direct debits.

[tight fart]

Re the advice about using credit not debit cars for online (any) purchases for the extra security, I think I heard the other day that you lose that protection if using via Applepay, can anyone confirm if true?

[Timbergiant]

I stumbled across this from google, I’ve been having the exact thing recently, even when I confirm the transaction via the mobile app, I’m going to take the advice and go with the credit card from now on, it was how I did things years ago, for some reason I’ve switched over though, that changes today!

[maccboy]

Somebody said:

I’ve had an account with Santander since the Abbey National days. As already mentioned their CS is carp, so rather than switching I kept the current account open with 10p in credit, periodically moving a few pence to and from a savings account to keep them from going dormant. I still receive postal statements so it costs them a few quid in postage and stationery to service my account every year.

What a wonderful way of wasting people's time and money. Sounds like you need to grow up, or get a life.

[Red9zero]

I have a similar problem with my Nat West card. It regularly needs a PIN inputting, like every 3-4 transactions, often gets refuses in stores, sometimes gets accepted online and then declined a few days later, leaving me with an unpaid debt. NW say not their problem, even tried a new card and it was exactly the same. Retailers always say it's not their problem either. There is always plenty of money in the account, but it is getting embarrassing being asked if I have another card all the time.

[Jon39]

EmailAddress said:

Personally, I'd recommend a credit card for any payments of the type you have mentioned. Then A: It's always their problem, and B: It's in their interests to get it working again.

+1

I had a fraud issue with a debit card.
That taught me a lesson. The bank refused to talk.
Have never used a debit card since, always a credit card.

As stated - always much safer for the customer.
Debit card - the customer has the problem.
Credit card - the card provider has the problem.