Abbey Bank

So DH gets a letter from the fraud division at Abbey bank, where we have a joint current account, asking him to contact them immediately.

He calls, and after speaking to two people who can't help him, he speaks to a third person who makes him review every transaction that has taken place in our account over the past month. He says they are all legitimate, and that his debit card has never left his wallet. After being on the phone for half an hour, the person tells him that his debit card has already been deactivated and he won't be getting a replacement for another three weeks.

So now if he needs money, I have to use my card to get it for him.

What would have happened if it wasn't a joint account and it was his only bank account? He wouldn't have access to his own money for three weeks.

What was the point of his verifying all the transactions if his card had already been deactivated?

When asked what it was that made them suspicious that something was wrong, they wouldn't tell him.

That's odd.  Most banks, AFAIK, would put a freeze on your account and have you verify new charges, but wouldn't close the card until you told them to.

At least you have your card to access money with!

That's outrageous!  How could they not even tell him what made them suspicious?  Surely it's his business as much as anyone's!  Is there any way he could make a formal complaint? 

That's odd.  Most banks, AFAIK, would put a freeze on your account and have you verify new charges, but wouldn't close the card until you told them to.

At least you have your card to access money with!

Yes. Something like that happened to me constantly when I first moved to the UK and had to use my US credit cards to pay for everything. They were constantly freezing my account because of the "suspicious foreign charges", and it was a pain, but once I called and identified myself and said the charges were OK, they would unfreeze the card.

That's outrageous!  How could they not even tell him what made them suspicious?  Surely it's his business as much as anyone's!  Is there any way he could make a formal complaint? 

Barclays does this to me at least once a year every year since I've had the account. When it happens, until I get a new card, I gotta schlep to the branch to get cash, carrying my license, passport, blood sample, first-born, etc. 

That's odd.  I bank with Barclays and recently had a fraud letter.  Just had to call in and verify recent transactions.  The only thing that was stopped was online banking and once I verified, online banking was restored within 5 minutes.

They do that too! But just last month they closed my card because, of all things, a MAC order!

Hi Sweetpeach,

On the letter itself, is it addressed to you and yer better half by name? if not, treat it as suspicious. There are some outfits out there that purport to be legitimate and ask for details etc etc - but are actually fraudsters.

Assuming that is genuinely is the bank that was calling - and now that the card has been frozen and no replacement for 3 weeks you definitley need to put in a letter of complaint. I lost my card a few weeks ago, and within 2 days I had a replacement in my hand. 3 weeks is absurdly a long time to wait. You also need to press for the person who called you and then denied to tell you why they'd frozen the card or what the reason was. That is simply unnacceptable. There will be a trace of it somewhere, unless of course, theres some internal prankster at Abbey who made the call etc.

if the 3 week thing is in the small print somewhere, I'd then consider switching banks! they're all a necessary evil I guess, but if true, then that's a really low level to stoop in customer service !

As for the recent tales here of people getting similar freezes etc, it's not a human initially that 'freezes' the account. There's alot of sophisticated data mining software that uses algorithms to assess your cards usage for fraud purposes. Maybe they've become a little more over zealous recently, but certainly in my experience when use occured abroad

The letter was really from Abbey and was addressed directly to my husband.

It's not worth it to put in a complaint, because by the time the complaint is resolved, he'll have gotten his new card back. DH makes a lot of Paypal payments to freelancers in foreign countries, so he thinks one of those might have triggered it, even though they are usually less than £40.

We have had additional problems with Abbey around various issues; their service is just awful.

That does sound horrible.  I would go into a branch if I were in your shoes.  A 3 week turnaround for a debit card is ridiculous, and to not even get an explanation as to why is even worse.  I would really think of looking for a new bank after dealing with that kind of service.