September 2009 - Credit Card Woes

We had a lot of stuff to order this week and using the credit cards has turned into a nightmare.

Both cards ended up being blocked this week due to 'suspicious activity' (actually just us trying to order things). Started last Monday with an on-line Screwfix order where payment was refused on the Egg Money card. Rang Screwfix and sorted it out by using the Citibank card instead. On Tuesday the central vacuum retailer called and said that payment had been refused on the Citibank card that had been working the day before. Call Citibank. So why is it that you have to key in the 16 digit card number, 6 digit date of birth, 4 digit expiry date and a pin and still get asked for the same information when you finally get through to the Indian call centre. Am told that the card is blocked for security reasons. Put through to their fraud department and answer a few questions and apparently we're good to go. Ring the retailer back, still no joy. Ring Citibank back (same long winded rigmarole before we get to speak to someone), told by the Indian call centre that there is no problem their end and to get the retailer to put the transaction through manually. Call back the retailer and give her the information. She calls back to say no joy. Call back Citibank (getting very tiresome now). Losing the will to live with the keypad entry and security questions. Still told that there is definitely no problem their end and it must be a problem at the retailer's end. Call the retailer back. She tries again but still not accepted. She has put through at least a dozen transactions this morning already and all have been accepted but this one. Very embarrassed now so give her the debit card details clearing out the current account apart from £24 until more money can be paid into it from a savings account.

10 minutes later tried to log onto the Egg statement to check the transactions that have been going through. They have disabled the logon to that too! Oh bloody fantastic! Very handy when we're spending money like it's going out of fashion and need to keep a check on the card and account balances almost daily. Call them, and just to make a change it's a voice recognition system instead of telephone keypad entry. At least it's not an Indian call centre when finally we get through, and at least we didn't get asked the same questions that the voice recognition system had asked for. Put through to their fraud department, get asked some questions and told that everything is sorted out. Logon to the statement and access is restored. Eureka!

So that's everything sorted (we hope) until this morning the payment for another Screwfix order was rejected by Egg. WTF!!! Ring up Screwfix who check the card details, try again, but it's definitely a rejected payment. Ring up Egg, voice recognition gets us through to a customer services assistant who tells us that the fraud department hasn't removed the card block properly. Assured that she has taken care of this and it's now all sorted. Call Screwfix who say that the payment still won't authorise. Call Egg back. Apparently within the last 10 minutes Karen's voice has altered because now the voice recognition can't recognise her voice. Same phone, same accent (as far as we know!). Listen to music for a while before getting through to someone who has to go through all of the security questions over the phone again. Told that he has no idea why we've been told that the card is now ok because the previous operator does not have the authority to remove the block! FFS!!! Told that everything is ok now. Tentatively call Screwfix and ask them to try again. At least it's been 3 different people on the line, not the same person thinking we're some sort of fraudsters. Payment accepted this time. Goods should arrive Monday.

Now of course the credit card companies need to be careful but this is turning out to be a bit of a farce! So for the moment both cards seem to be working (but watch this space ...........)