good to know Visa is watching your account

[Dart Vader]

Went to buy something from Rockauto today

Oddly the payment on my Visa card declined...so I rang them up (VISA that is), no problems with the balance as its paid off every month....still 3k on it spare

Turns out some "suspicious activity" had been noted by Visa

Having just been to Turkey and used the card a bit there I asked whether that was it, turns out they wont tell you.

So if its not Turkey and could be a local scammer (double swipes at restaurants are common) why wouldn't they tell you.....?

I guess its in case you don't go round there and thump em, but a steer at least would be good.

Maybe the VISA god is a Ford guy....or should I say FRAUD guy.

But good that they don't let some scally whip off with a load of your money

[Pete]

I TOLD them I was going abroad and they STILL declined payments, not good as it was my Wedding day

[steveo]

had that with visa , one time when I was ordering parts for the charger , I had ordered parts from 4 states in one day & they declined payment to summit the next day in another state , even phoned up to ask what was happening , ordering from places crisscrossing the US , with in a hour
good thing I suppose

[Dave81]

I TOLD them I was going abroad and they STILL declined payments, not good as it was my Wedding day

Ditto..........Phoned MasterCard to tell them that, though I'd only used it three times for fuel, my honeymoon was going to be in the States for three weeks.

Please put a note on the account with destination and flight in/out dates.

Guess what happened at the end of the first week.

Phone bill at the hotel was over £90 for one call!

Also had my headers declined on Amazon................luckily in the UK.

Pain in the ass, but better than the alternative!

[Dave999]

VISA and MasterCard won't speak to you, well they'll listen for a bit until they get fed up and send you off somewhere else

they are business to business only and they will then only speak to you if your business issues cards to customers as part of their card scheme

if you are an individual or a business that just has a VISA or MasterCard branded card for use they will always send you to the issuing financial institution.

your bank or credit card issuer on the other hand should be a little more sympathetic but they won't tell you anything if they think it could impact their reputation they won't dob themselves in.

I got an apology off HSBC/Firstdirect because they let some bloke in Kathmandu spend £1.5K on furniture taxis and food while I was spending £20 at a bar in London

obviously I couldn't be in both places at the same time and I'd be unlikely to order takeaway food from so far away....it would be cold by the time it got to me.

we have chip and pin BUT in some countries your card data recorded onto the magnetic strip of a library card a quick swipe and a signature that looks like X

works just fine.


Much of this fraud detection now works by data sharing

your bank will contact a provider who knows things like
purchased air line tickets
checked in on Facebook at Heathrow
Google maps and his fitness logger show him at Heathrow
phone popped up on network in US
Google maps and Uber show he is in the US
He booked a taxi with Uber and the journey was 5 miles but was 1900 miles away from his recorded home and work addresses, and this card paid for it
checked in to Facebook at hotel in NY

purchase at shop in New York

no problem here do not block it

they know where you've been because by default everything on your phone that uses global positioning can and occasionally does report back to base.

The BIG data is for sale on a per use basis


Dave