Newsgroups: uk.finance
From: David M 
Subject: Re: Identity theft; Banks are not serious about it
Archive: no
Restrict: no-external-archive
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 16:07:25 +0100

Chris Blunt wrote in uk.finance 
 about: Re: Identity theft; Banks are not serious about it 

> Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed that my Nationwide credit
> card has been declined while carrying out transactions on the
> internet. From experience, I know that this can occasionally happen,
> but after it was rejected for the fifth time I got a bit concerned.
>
> I rang Nationwide, who told me that my card account had been suspended
> and a new card issued. When I asked why this had been done they
> claimed that I had phoned them on July 9th to request it. I told them
> that I hadn't spoken to them on the phone for at least a year, and
> would have had no reason to ask for such a thing to happen. They were
> absolutely adamant that I had called them on that day, and totally
> dismissed my denial of it. I suggested that if they were quite sure
> about their facts then there was a strong possibility that some kind
> of fraud was being attempted. 


Something odd seems to have happened at Nationwide Credit Card Services
at some point earlier this year.

Earlier this summer my Nationwide credit card, like yours, mysteriously 
started to be being declined (in shops) for transactions (although, oddly, 
there was one place where it continued to work - obviously a retailer not 
using online authorisation!). After a few such rejections I was convinced 
that this wasn't a transitory random fault and phoned  Card Services to ask what was going on:

"Yeah, your card has expired. We've sent you a new one."

«Err, no it hasn't. It doesn't expire until [much later this year].»

"Yes it has. It expired at the end of last month, and we've sent you a
new one."

«Umm, I can assure you that the expiry date printed on my card says
[much later this year].»

"[Much puzzlement]. Our records show it expired at the end of last
month.."


So, they sent out a new card, with a new number, and cancelled the
just-issued one (which, as I'd just moved, turns out had been sent to 
my old address as it escaped before their records were updated).

But it's all very odd. I've no idea what caused them to decide to change
the expiry date of an existing card on a whim..


-- 
David M. -- Edinburgh, Scotland.--[en, fr, (de)]--[reply-to valid <365d]
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