Thread: Please help, debit card used without my knowledge :-(

Hi
Yesterday i logged onto internet banking to discover someone had used my card to pay for travelodge accomodation to the tune of £125. Rang the bank etc who were unhelpful to say the least, and also travelodge to ask if they could shed any light. They confirmed that due to the wording on the bank statement it had been an internet transaction, which then begs the question of how could anyone do this as travelodge use the 'verified by visa' site to process payments. This i assume means that someone not only has my card details but my verification password also??? If so does anyone know how we can change the password? Or does anyone have a similar experience and can offer some much needed advice. We can ill afford to lose this kind of money to some [problem]mer who fancies a weekend away!
Thanks in advance

Speak to their fraud department and get the card cancelled. Is it a visa debit card?

Hi
Thanks for the reply. We asked them to cancel the card, the 1st tel operator told us they could do nothing and that we need to take it up with travelodge!!! I was fuming. We rang back to speak to someone else and they cancelled the card etc and referred it to the fraud team. Now we dont know how long its going to take to get the money back or even if we will get it back, no one seems to be able to offer us any advice and the A&L dont look to favourable on the boards! I'm so stressed out with it but appears that there's nowehere to turn. How on earth can someone do this?
x

P.S. the fraud dept dont take calls lol

Originally Posted by maud26

P.S. the fraud dept dont take calls lol

Some banks do and others don't.

A very similar thing happened to me recently. I got an email one day from verified by visa saying thanks for changing my password. I rang A&L and they said it was probably a spoof and to forward it to their suspicious emails team. I then checked A&L account online to find a charge for £110 for a train ticket which I certainly did not buy!

I tried to log in to verified by visa, it said to change my password just enter card number and answer some qs eg date of birth. I did this but the bleepers changed it again!

Anyhow then I rang A&L again and they said they would put a lock on the card being used online but I could DEFINITELY withdraw cash from a machine. This is after being switched between current account and internet depts and whatnot. I had a driving lesson that afternoon so I went to the machine to get some cash for it. Of course the machine ate my card, for security reasons, and I had to borrow money from my mum.

I then rang A&L again and they said I should not have been told I could do that. 'Whoever told you that was WRONG'. They said the fraud team and the police would be looking into who took my money and I would receive a letter- would take 8-10 days to investigate.

Long story short, I had to go to the post office with my passport (I don't use my checkbook so it's somewhere in my disorganised room) to withdraw cash so I could get any money. The post office manager had to phone the bank, who were supposed to give me some kind of authorisation code but didn't- they said passport etc was all I needed.

The £110 was 'reversed' a few days later. I still have no correspondence from A&L. They send me letters quick enough when I go £1 overdrawn!

The whole experience was very traumatic and I understand how horrible it is. Just before this happened I was made redundant, so my last payslip aka all my money in the world, was all I had- then someone takes it and I can't get to my own money...grrr.

Hugs to the OP.

Originally Posted by maud26

Hi
Yesterday i logged onto internet banking to discover someone had used my card to pay for travelodge accomodation to the tune of £125. Rang the bank etc who were unhelpful to say the least, and also travelodge to ask if they could shed any light. They confirmed that due to the wording on the bank statement it had been an internet transaction, which then begs the question of how could anyone do this as travelodge use the 'verified by visa' site to process payments. This i assume means that someone not only has my card details but my verification password also??? If so does anyone know how we can change the password? Or does anyone have a similar experience and can offer some much needed advice. We can ill afford to lose this kind of money to some [problem]mer who fancies a weekend away!
Thanks in advance

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem, only this time its 4 huge payment to travellodge made over 2 days. How long did A&L take to resolve this case for you?

Thanks,

Chris

Hi Chris,
They refunded the money within 48 hours but only after we were persistent that it was not our transaction! They sent us a letter about 8 weeks after asking us to sign to confirm it wasn't us but haven't heard anything since. Still no clue as to how it happened either!
Good Luck
xx

Many thanks for the quick reply - and the relatively good news that these things can be sorted quickly, I'm hoping their fraud team will call tomorrow. Got the mortgage payment coming out soon, and we're off on our holiday in 5 days, but right now our account is nearly £2000 overdrawn, way past its limit, disastrous. The thieving b*stards seem to have done 2 transactions on Friday, then 2 more on Saturday of much larger values, I'd hate to think of how much they might have spent today if I hadn’t checked my balance.