Natwest

[joshlane]

Hi guys,

been a while since i've been on here, so long that i ahve had to sort out a new account.

i dunno if any of you have had this happen to you but i've bouhgt about £400 worth of stuff through OCUK and as a result had all my natwest cards blocked temperaly by the bank, didn't realise untill i tried to pay for a take away with my card, rang up natwest and they told they have a team monitoring this site due to recent fraudulent transactions. i've used OCUK for years and this surprised me. they suggested that i shouldn't use the site untill further notice!! turns out i had a letter sent home (not uni address) the day after my transaction (i hadn't used my card since paying for stuff on ocuk) with urgent attention detailing the problem.

anyway all sorted now but it did make me wonder how much trust i should have with sites that i put a lot of trust in (if that makes sense)!

 

[joshlane]

i've never had a problem with natwest in the past, when i went abroad they even phoned me to check i was a abroad to ensure my cards were safe as i had bought petrol in france. i see that as good customer service more than anything.

the number i was instructed to call was the fraud prevention team, i got straight through and the people were very helpful.

i was just surprised as i spend £1000's over the year and have never been pulled up for say high traffic on my account.

lol about the flowers, i did a spare the minute thing i walked in to a florist whilst the g/f was with me and said can i have 12 red roses please, the lass in the shop got them out prepared them and wrapped them for my g/f who was very grateful - untill i realised i had forgotten my wallet the only pro is that i don't have sky upstairs so i got to watch some good telly that night... on the couch.....

 

[joshlane]

EDIT: sorry, I thought you were the OP.

My original advice regarding phone numbers still stands. If they can't contact you by phone, they will have to send out a letter which can obviously take a couple of days to arrive. I worked with the debit card fraud department for 3 years and never once heard of a case where they would put a block on a card without at least sending a letter.

If you're still struggling to get any information, send me an email and I'll give you a number for debit card fraud, who should be able to tell you exactly why the card has been stopped.

its safer to have my banking sent to my home address (which is about 20 mins away from uni) natwest have my phone number, the letter arrived the next day after my transaction with ocuk. i got the fraud number and rang it and they told it is due to fraudulent card use through ocuk and ocuk are a flagged company to monitor high purchase transactions.
natwest were incredibly helpful and had everything sorted in minutes (well couldn't use my card till the next day but hey i rang at 11pm)

i just found it strange that there reasoning was linked to OCUK, even as a student i have about £1000 coming in and out every month with online poker and spare of the moment spends so its not like £314.76 is out of the way.

i'm glad my original post has sparked a bit of discussion, i think the general consensus is that natwest have a lot of happy customers. i know they have been transparent with all their reasoning and advice in the past. my bank manager even said 'hi' the other day in a shop! lol

 

[joshlane]

For that department to stop your card, it is almost never about the amount of the transaction but rather where it was made. The time you called has nothing to do with when you could use the card again - the stop they place on the card takes 24 hours to come off unless they remove it on the day it was placed .

cheers vixen that clears that up. i as gonna ring natwest before i renewed my car insurance as that is gonna be £370 on the same card and didn't want there to be payment issues as you buy online but confirm over the phone and i would need the transaction to take place.

thanks for your insiders insight! :thumbup: