Chip and pin fraud

[judocol]

Hi there, I am currently taking the Halifax to court regarding my card being fraudulently used. They dismissed my case saying that I had not taken reasonable care with my pin number.

my defence is based upon the consumer credit act, which says that if the card was used as a credit token, then card holders can only be held responsible for a maximum of £ 50.00 if the card is in possession of someone not authorised to use it.

This act takes presidence over the banking code and any account terms.

Would value anyones opinion on this

[caro]

What do you mean by credit token?

[barracad]

Yes that is quite right although the bank will probably try and argue their way out of it!

I don't see anyway they could successfully argue against the statute you refer to so go for it.

Good luck.

[judocol]

The meaning of 'credit token'. The use of a credit card or a debit card on an account which is overdrawn (up to the extent of its agreed credit limit (by the disputed transaction.

hope this helps

[caro]

Oh right, so on that basis you can only be liable for £50 if your card is stolen. That could be very useful information for a lot of people.

I learn something new every day on this site.

[judocol]

Hi if you do a google search for the ombudsman news and look at issue 46, it gives the info there.

[caro]

I'll do that. Thanks

[blueskies]

This is the big con with chip and PIN. Although it will affect the number of unauthorised transactions with credit cards it also act to shift the blame of any card misuse on to the card holder.

I was telling people about this when chip and pin came in.

With the old system, anybody could look at the back of the card and learn how to copy the signature, therefore the card company, was completely liable as they could not prove that the customer was at fault. With chip and PIN they have very cleverly shifted the blame to the customer as they would have to have seen the customer enter the PIN or had other access to the PIN.

The problem with this is that at a lot of places that use chip and PIN, the terminal is often fixed and there is minimal shielding to prevent people looking over your shoulder. All it takes is a good pick pocket to follow you out and relieve you of your card shortly afterwards.

They didn't tell you about the shift of blame in the advertising.

I made a complaint to Capital One about the way my card and PIN arrived last year. Both arrived in the same post and had identical envelopes. Although neither of these said Capital One, if you felt the envelope with the card in it was obvious what was in there. I live in a flat with a communal hallway and anyone could have found these and used my card.