Suspect device
Yesterday I decided to take an hour off work to go into Brighton and pick up a few last minute things for my Austria trip. As I tried to pay for a bar of shampoo in Lush, my card failed to work. The woman was not particularly pleasant and basically accused me of using a stolen card (she wouldn't let me use it as a cheque guarantee card either- I understand this now, because it must have come up on their computer as a cancelled card, but I had no idea of that at the time). So I went over the road to try and withdraw some cash- no go.
This morning I went into my bank (Halifax) first thing and found out the reason for the cancellation. Apparently someone fitted a cloning device to my local cash point, and the bank's reaction was to cancel the cards of all customers who had used their cash point over a certain time period. You may well think this is a reasonable reaction to prevent fraud, but my problem with this comes from the fact that Halifax do not have a policy of informing customers either of potential fraud using their card, or that the card has been cancelled, and that they should expect to receive a new one within 28 working days (plus up to an additional 7 days for the a new PIN). The excuse given for this was that they had cancelled the cards of many customers, so it was 'too difficult' to inform them. The lady said that most people don't use their debit card except to withdraw cash, as they use credit cards for any payments, so it wouldn't inconvenience most people to not have a debit card. I must say I find it shocking that my card was cancelled last Saturday, and they blithely assumed it was fine and dandy to not bother informing me.
This is a prime example of why I don't support the proposal ID cards which give people access to public services. Sure, a debit card not working isn't the end of the world, but I was treated as if I was a criminal when I had no idea what was going on, and that's what I object to.
Yeah, it wasn't a big deal, but I feel a bit shaken. I'd really rather not be alone tonight.
This morning I went into my bank (Halifax) first thing and found out the reason for the cancellation. Apparently someone fitted a cloning device to my local cash point, and the bank's reaction was to cancel the cards of all customers who had used their cash point over a certain time period. You may well think this is a reasonable reaction to prevent fraud, but my problem with this comes from the fact that Halifax do not have a policy of informing customers either of potential fraud using their card, or that the card has been cancelled, and that they should expect to receive a new one within 28 working days (plus up to an additional 7 days for the a new PIN). The excuse given for this was that they had cancelled the cards of many customers, so it was 'too difficult' to inform them. The lady said that most people don't use their debit card except to withdraw cash, as they use credit cards for any payments, so it wouldn't inconvenience most people to not have a debit card. I must say I find it shocking that my card was cancelled last Saturday, and they blithely assumed it was fine and dandy to not bother informing me.
This is a prime example of why I don't support the proposal ID cards which give people access to public services. Sure, a debit card not working isn't the end of the world, but I was treated as if I was a criminal when I had no idea what was going on, and that's what I object to.
Yeah, it wasn't a big deal, but I feel a bit shaken. I'd really rather not be alone tonight.