Barclaycard - a playground for fraudsters
I am quite a tech-savvy person and I know how to spot fraud, and how to protect myself from losing money to fraudsters.
To my surprise, I recently discovered 3 unauthorised transactions on one of my credit cards which is issued by Barclaycard.
Because I am using this card to pay for my balance transfer and nothing else, I have been logging into the app only once a month to pay a part of it.
Just last month, when was time to pay it, I noticed that the outstanding balance was higher than what I calculated that I needed to repay. I have looked into a statement and noticed that for the last months, from September to November, each time on the 8th, I have been charged for Amazon Prime £8.99.
The funny thing is, that I already have Amazon Prime, for years, but I am paying it annually and not from Barclaycard. I don’t have Barclaycard added to my Amazon account.
Because these transactions are not displayed on my Amazon account, I haven’t been able to sort this out with Amazon itself and need to contact Barclaycard.
Before that, I raised claims about unauthorised transactions for all three transactions.
As a precaution, I cancelled my Barclaycard and requested a new one with a new number as I thought that with a new number, no more new transactions would happen. Below I will show how wrong I were in that assumption.
Every other bank that I am with would cancel any payments when a card is reported as lost/stolen and a new card is ordered, but Barclaycard is different.
Some credit card companies offer an option to freeze cards so your account cannot be charged when you not using it, but once again, Barclaycard is different, as they not offering this option, despite offering it for Barclays accounts (which Barclaycard is a partner company).
In response to customer service for my claims for unauthorised transactions, I received by post a follow-up letter from Barclaycard blaming me, rather than thinking that this may be a sign of fraud.
They sent me a letter stating:
“We would like to inform you that if you had opted for free delivery on an item recently purchased from Amazon, by doing this you have entered into the trial for 1 month_”.
This was total nonsense as I am already an Amazon Prime member.
This is followed by:
“As you didn’t cancel the agreement within the free trial period, the merchant has renewed the subscription automatically.”.
Nonsense!
I have reached Barclaycard to speak with somebody about this.
I have been put to claims teams who advised me what I already did, which was changing my card. Following that, I want some explanation of how this happens in the first place. Nobody has access to my card, hence how somebody could start a subscription on me?
Because this all looks like a fraud, I have been put forward to the fraud team.
The first contact with the fraud team was unprofessional. They did not show any care about my issue and didn’t want to do anything apart from passing be back to the claims team.
What a joke!
Again, contacting the claims team needed to explain everything, wasting more and more of my time, to be put to the fraud team, where finally their member of staff did something with it.
The fraud team advised me that they put this case forward, including reporting this to the Police. Fine!
Been advised, that this transaction has been put on stop on their system and I shall not be charged any further. Also, been informed that my money will be refunded to me as well, which was good news, despite I didn’t expect that due to the length of time.
On 11th December 2023 I received a text message stating:
“We’ve now refunded 3 fraudulent transactions totalling £26.97, which will show on your next statement.”
I thought that this case was resolved, as the transaction was put on stop and I got a new card, so is not possible that anybody will charge me again without my authorisation.
Here is how wrong I was.
Over the weekend, when the next 8th passed (8th December), I noticed that I got a pending transaction from Amazon Prime for £8.99 on my credit card, again!
What the hell!
I couldn’t contact Barclaycard, as the time over the weekend was past their customer service working hours so I moved to Monday to contact them again and waste more of my time.
From my call with customer service, I learned two things from Barclaycard.
First was that they put a hold only on Amazon Prime transactions that had been linked to the same reference number as previous payments. Any other transaction from Amazon Prime will still go through, even unauthorised.
Second, I learned that Barclaycard making a life of fraudsters much easier by informing, whoever used my card to purchase Amazon Prime, that my card changed.
Once my card changed, whoever requested recurring charges from my account, was informed about that by providing payment details to them, so they could update their end and still charge me without authorisation (as explained over the phone).
What a nonsense again!
I have checked on the Barclaycard account if there are any connections related to Open banking or other authorisation on my account, but there were none.
In that case, Barclaycard did a favour to fraudsters and let them know how they could still charge me after I changed my card number.
It’s a total joke!
The pending transaction on my account has been shown without a previous reference number hence it hasn’t been blocked at the start.
Barclaycard is simply not doing any checks required for them by basic banking obligations and they allowing fraudsters and their businesses to thrive!
As the amount is still pending, I contacted them again and they told me, they will put a monitoring in place, so when the pending transaction clears on my account, which means when I will be charged, they will raise a dispute to the merchant.
But why this is after I am charged?
Why were they allowed to do this in the first place?
I have recalled a letter that they sent to me earlier where they stated the following:
“However, we’ll do our best to stop any further charges that Amazon Prime tries to put through your account from now on.”
This letter was dated 28th November yet my card was still showing pending transactions from 8th December, how this is working?
Following:
“If, at a later date, you enter into another agreement with them, please let us know so that we make future charges go through.”
I haven’t let them know anything but still, they let further charges go through, hence what the hell happening here Barclaycard?
Following a conversation with customer services, I asked them to explain to me how this can happen in the first place. How somebody can charge my card even when the card has been replaced?
Once again been advised, that if it is subscription-based, Barclaycard will update the merchant end with new payment details (like with direct debits, as been explained), however, this shall not happen in the instance of potential fraud!
I have been informed, that on my previous calls when transactions have been disputed, their employees shall put on hold any, and all, transactions that may take place without the need for extra verification, but they haven’t done that. I requested this from them now.
I also asked what else can be done. I am furious with them right now. The only thing I want to do is to pay my outstanding balance and close this account as soon as it’s done.
I don’t want to have anything to do with their incompetence again, but until that happens I don’t want to waste any more time disputing transactions all the time.
I have been suggested, as I am not using the card at all, that they can close the card leaving an account open with an outstanding balance. I will not be able to put any more money through but still will be able to pay the balance as I am doing now.
I asked them to go forward with it.
They promised me that they would send a letter confirming what was happening and what was put in place.
I am still worried, that even though there is no card active, somehow somebody will still be able to charge me without my knowledge.
All is like in a bad joke movie.
They have all this technology to prevent frauds like this, but this still happening even though, as a customer, I am not at fault.
I can only recall, months back before the first disputed charge, that I purchased something on Amazon using this card, for a very small amount. At that time I noticed that I used the wrong card and I removed the card altogether, hence was no chance that this card could allow for any further charges.
Also, at the time I have been, and still am, an Amazon Prime member, as been for years now, hence is no chance that I will be getting charged double for Prime membership. Even if that could somehow happen, I would have some records and emails to follow but I haven’t have any.
There is also an Amazon fault here which happening for years now.
If you order something on Amazon, as long you put your name on the card, address details and card number with an expiry date, Amazon will process the payment not asking you for any additional security, including 3 digits security from the back of the card. Thats a total nonsense but yes, Amazon is doing that!
Still, I am shocked, that in the first century, in an era when all is computerised, this kind of nonsense happens and big institutions like Barclaycard not doing due diligence to prevent fraud!
That’s crazy!
I admit, that they will refund me, however, it is a post-treatment. How about fraud prevention first?
I am yet to see if I will get my money back from the one that is pending, hence the issue is far from being resolved.
Also looking into raising an official complaint based on what I wrote above to Barclaycard and, if that does not help, to the Financial Ombudsman to see if something can change, as I can bet that I am not the only customer who is charged like that.
This is also why I am making this post. If somebody else is facing the same nonsense from Barclaycard or any other company concerning unauthorised transactions, this will give them a glimpse of what happening on my end.
To be continued when more information is available.
