Jalexa:

huckster:

Sounds like you are receiving very poor service from MBNA.

I had similar from MBNA. They blocked a genuine transaction. Their apparant alertness is not that at all but their own low level of risk aversion. Some aspects of MBNA I like, above average pleasant staff, not too far off-shored, 0800 contact, but I would NEVER travel with my MBNA card. No confidence it would survive the first transaction.

When they blocked my transaction they phoned me seconds after the transaction, Caller Display "INTERNATIONAL" and wanted me to reveal personal data. Duh.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for a proper explanation through their complaints mechanism.

I have actually found them not be very secure in their operations, like when you apply for a card, if you ring up to find its progress or status, half the time the checks they run on your application, they end going over with you on the phone when you ring up!

And like with all things BOA/Virginmoney, the bad stuff with MBNA always outweighs the good sadly...

Like you said, the 0800 #'s and the UK call centers are good, but BOA giving credit cards to illegal aliens in the US with no paperwork and the fact that nothing ever works with Virgin (their net facilities with premium rate #'s to call, trains are always late, basically trying to rip off Sky's programming and steal their networks for a cheap price to run on their own airways etc) always seems to put me off them.

And that's a shame too, because MBNA offers some fantastic cards...

huckster:

Sounds like you are receiving very poor service from MBNA.

I had similar from MBNA. They blocked a genuine transaction. Their apparant alertness is not that at all but their own low level of risk aversion. Some aspects of MBNA I like, above average pleasant staff, not too far off-shored, 0800 contact, but I would NEVER travel with my MBNA card. No confidence it would survive the first transaction.

When they blocked my transaction they phoned me seconds after the transaction, Caller Display "INTERNATIONAL" and wanted me to reveal personal data. Duh.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for a proper explanation through their complaints mechanism.

Sounds like you are receiving very poor service from MBNA. They should explain the process and give you good advice.

If the card needs to be cancelled and replaced by a new card number, why couldn't MBNA arrange this, when you were on the phone to them.

Huckster

Just got off the phone with Visa (who referred me back to MBNA......), and then MBNA, none of my transactions before 4:30pm yesterday will be cancelled, so it's probably easier for me to just let them cancel it and apply for a new card.

Thanks all.

Rx512:I did try and tell the guy that the transaction was authorised by me, but he said that MBNA were directly advised by Visa not to allow it through...?

That is very unusual (by which i mean rare). Rarely do Visa, Mastercard, Amex etc, directly tell a lender to freeze a card by blocking transactions on it from going through but if they do it is usually for quite serious reasons.

The good news is that when they do step in, they usually stop fraudulent activity pre-emptively, not stop future use of the card after the possible damage has been done.

I'll call them up tomorrow, see what I can get out of them.

I think somewhere Visa has a fraud prevention/enquiries office which may serve you better, MBNA may not be able (or willing) to give you much information, dependant on where they see the situation being at.

Thanks for the reply.

I did try and tell the guy that the transaction was authorised by me, but he said that MBNA were directly advised by Visa not to allow it through...?

I'll call them up tomorrow, see what I can get out of them.

Hi

I think you just have to phone the card issuer and advise them that this is a genuine payment. They should have a way to recall this and put the transaction through. Then unfreeze the account.

With a lot of cards, if the transaction is over a certain amount, the system automatically stops an item and a phone call is made. I am surprised that MBNA did not give you the option for the transaction to go through or atleast advise what could be done.

In the meantime I suspect HMV will put the order onhold and wait for the payment to clear.You may get an e-mail.

Huckster

I pre-ordered a PS3 from HMV a few days ago.

Today, HMV charged me, presumably before they were about to ship it, and I got a call from MBNA saying they got a call from Visa, telling them that the HMV transaction was "suspicious" so my card was frozen.

I didn't get any further explanation and sure enough, MBNA online banking goes on about the status of my account preventing me access to certain parts of it.

What should be my next step? :\