Having had my Visa Debit card blocked twice in as many weeks, I'm beginning to question if our current "Plastic" cards are fit for purpose. A somewhat long story follows with a question at the end:
About 2 weeks ago, Skinny decided not to honour my perfectly valid Visa card. I contacted my bank to find out why my card was being rejected. They let me know that some businesses won't take payment on cards that are approaching expiry and Skinny, apparently, won't take payment if the card expires in the following month. The card was due to expire in 8 weeks!
I find it ridiculous to reject payments that far from expiry! What would you do if you only had access to one credit card?
I switched cards on the account and in the process the Skinny interface initiated three transactions in quick succession, of which two should not have occurred. Another long story, but it took four hours (yes 4) to sort that out. These transactions triggered my bank to block the newly registered card and warned me via text message. Thankfully, a quick reply text was all that was needed to unblock the card.
My new card arrived a week or two later (they sent it out early) - all good once I used it to make a local purchase via EFTPOS. (This card had the same card number but different CVV)
A little over a week later, I receive a text message from my bank:
We've blocked your Visa Debit Card due to some suspicious transactions to Google YouTube Super. If this was you, please reply AUTHORISED. If not, please give us a call on #### or pop into your local branch
These were not my transactions, so a call was made. Apparently, the card number was/had been used on multiple (21) relatively small transactions in Australia. The bank's only option was to cancel the card and re-issue me a new one. How these transactions were being validated without the CVV (unless they had 'cracked' it), I don't know. These were Google transactions, so I would expect them to have been validated?
Luckily, I was due to travel to town - a little over two hours round trip! So I went into my closest branch and received a new card (with a new card number this time). Another EFTPOS transaction at a local shop and it's good to go again.
I've no doubt there are others who have had similar experiences?
I can't remember the last time I used cash, though I always carry some. For me, a cashless society mostly works.
The discussion I had with my bank suggests that these type of blocks, due to unauthorised transactions, are on the rise significantly.
So what is the future of "money"? How can transactions be made without inconvenience, but still be secure and safe from unauthorised access?
Really just a topic starter and I felt I needed to tell the story.
From what I hear in China, and possibly some other countries, if they don’t like what you do/say you’re not only censored but they’ll cut you off from your bank. Cash is king and it always will be.
Your bank account is nothing but zeros and ones. Imagine if there was a massive power outage for an extended period of time. It happened here last week, luckily for only a day, but you couldn’t get gas or groceries because there was no power. If they had power, the internet was down so the card machines wouldn’t work.
It’s easy to forget how fragile the whole system is and cash on hand will always be king.