My card is valid and well within its limits but is often declined when I try to shop online, mainly at UK based shops. I suspect my lack of a postcode may have something to do with this in some instances. In others-especially on sites which use Thawte Security- it will only be accepted if I leave the start date and three digit security number out! I figured this out by trial and error.
Most frustrating are instances where there is a referral placed on my card and the shop in question tells me to contact my bank (Bank of Ireland). The bank tells me that this is a security check and means that the vendor should contact its authorisation centre. In most cases when I contact the vendor they say they can't do this and tell me to go back to my bank.
Today this happened in a shop where I had successfully shopped last week (after having to ring up and give them the number) and it took multiple calls to both them and the bank before the card was finally accepted. The bank told me that the same thing had happened when I tried to top up my phone with my card yesterday. Vodafone managed to eventually authorise it without getting back to me, so obviously some vendors must be familiar with this process.
Aquila,
What type of credit card is it? VISA/MASTERCARD, others
I've a feeling that you must have some other type of card. As I've never heard of/or hard problems using my own card on line.
If its not a mainstream card I would switch to one.
If it is then get bank of ireland to reissue a card.
If that doesn't work try a c/c from a different bank.
In this and age you should not have to have the embarrasment and hassle that this card is giving you.
The card is due for renewal this month, but I've had these problems for a long time. I must add though that many of my online transactions are accepted without hassle. I was actually wondering if getting a new number would make a difference.
Getting another card isn't really a possibility for me at the moment as I'm a mature student finishing a thesis from home fulltime and won't have a regular income for the next few months at least.
Interesting. I have been a happy customer of NIB visa for about 10 years now. Never a complaint, always recommended them to everyone on AAM for their hassle-free approach.
For the last three months I have had no end of problems. The card has been rejected for no apparent reason both in shops and on phone transactions. The next month my account suspended because a payment was two weeks late (due to an error by my bank) without even a phone call to see why for the first time in ten years the payment hadn't arrived. The following month, I had to ring their fraud department to get my account active again...they had disabled my card because it was being used in a "high risk" vendor!! (by me!!)
My guess is that either the credit card companies are being hit by cc fraud on a massive scale and are completely paranoid or that a large number of customers are getting into repayment problems.
I had the same problem with a bank of ireland visa card a while back. It seemed to be something to do with the renewal date getting closer as it had worked fine before that. Once I got the new card suddenly everything was fine again.
Not sure thats of any help but at least you know you're not the only one.. The bank was no real help at all.
On Friday I decided to order a new card with a different number from BOI to see if that would help and it arrived yesterday.
Last night I made a purchase from a shop which uses Worldpay and all went fine. They usually have the option to leave the start date and three digit security pin off and so I did that. Later I decided to order from the shop where I'd had the trouble last week and received yet another 'problem with payment' email this morning. They seem to put the transactions through manually themselves, so it wasn't immediately evident at the time of order.
And so the whole saga began again. I rang the bank. They said there have been no declined orders on my card. I rang the vendor. They tried the card details again and they didn't work. I eventually convinced the customer services rep to try without the three digit security number (which they are not really allowed to do) and it worked!
The customer services rep told me that my card has been declined on three separate occasions within the last month and they can't keep doing this, which is a shame as there are some great deals at the shop in question. With tightening security these days more and more places are insisting on the pin number.
I just received my statement and two of my problematic transactions from last week with the Vodafone and another vendor are down as Mastercard transactions. Problem is, I don't actually have a Mastercard! An earlier, but still problematic transaction with the same shop is down as a Visa one.
Rang BOI yet again and they told me that my acount is a dual account even though I don't have a Mastercard, and the Mastercard number formed part of my account number. Whatever about Vodafone I don't understand how the other shop got this as they supposedly refused to ring anyone. BOIs advice (wait for it): contact the retailers.
I tried the link you posted. Not sure if I'm doing this right as my 'city' is a small place in rural Ireland and I've used two different email addresses with the shops I've had problems with above. Anyway I've tried them both and the fraud score came out at 0.15-pretty low
I phoned Vodafone about the 'MasterCard' problem. They said they don't keep card details, but that the rep may have simply 'ticked the wrong box'. Funny it happened with the other shop the day after too though.
I think I've resigned myself to changing credit card provider as soon as possible.
