Kathmandu - I've never been. Or have I?

I've never been to Kathmandu. I've never even been outside of Europe. I'm not a well travelled person at all really.

I also don't own my own private supersonic jet.

Thankfully Nationwide Building Society, or more specifically their clever software, guessed that that's the case.

I went to buy something off Amazon, using my usual debit card. I knew my balance was unusually healthy, so imagine my surprise when the payment was declined. I tried again, thinking I might have perhaps inadvertently selected an expired card from the list of cards registered with Amazon. Nope, declined again. So I phone the Nationwide to see what was going on.

My card had been blocked. On further investigation, the nice lady at Nationwide, who I might add was very professional and very rapidly set my mind at ease that I hadn't been wiped out, informed me that somebody had used my card in an ATM in Kathmandu. Their computer system had recognised that it was extraordinarily unlikely to be really me, or my real card, so it had declined the withdrawal request and then killed the card off on suspicion that it had been compromised.

I'm not sure how clever their software is. Whether it just looks at habits, or whether it also takes into account logistics, so I don't know if it helped me that I made a withdrawal myself in Whitby (not usual for me, seeing as that's where I work) on the same day as this attempted withdrawal in Kathmandu.

Anyway, the lady on the phone was very good. She assured me that I had lost nothing, and that it was clear that I was the innocent party etc, and that apart from the inconvenience of having no debit card until the new arrives I have not been bothered in any way, and told me that if I need cash in the meantime, in this situation I can name a branch, and they will authorise that branch to give me cash over the counter if I take in some ID. So I did that this morning. When I explained the situation to the lady at the desk, she was lovely too. She was not in the least bit surprised at first, although she was surprised at my mellow and polite attitude towards them. She said they've had loads of these cases over the last few weeks, always with the attempted withdrawal being in Kathmandu or Goa, and that when most people come in to sort in out the first thing they do is kick off at the bank staff for blocking their card. This surprised me. Yes its a bad thing to happen, but its a good thing that the bank blocks the card. I don't know about all the others that kicked off, but I'd rather have the inconvenience of having to actually talk to a human for a whopping 5 minutes of my life, than find that their systems had just allowed any transaction and found that I'd been completely wiped out.

I was given a useful tip for next time I use a cashpoint. Apparently you should run your fingers along under the lip where you insert your card. If it is smooth, it is probably fine. If it is not smooth, the chances are an illegal device has been inserted which will copy your card details, so you should walk away and report it. Also, if the machine appears to reject your card for no good reason, be suspicious then too, as apparently some of the illegal devices prevent the card from fully inserting, so it goes in, stays for a second or two, and then bounces back out. So if your card does that, don't push it back in and try again, phone the number on the ATM and report it as suspicious.

 

The mini store near us had their cash machine stolen on Xmas eve . The machine was by the door which was prised open , they put a wire rope around the machine and dragged it out of the shop ! Now I am not a criminal mastermind , but I bet that machine was at its emptiest at the start of the holiday . So maybe they were a little disappointed when they did get in the machine .

 

The last time that we were in Gran Canaria my card was declined in a restaurant. Sues card worked and whilst she was paying I phoned the card issuer who asked me a few security questions and then told me it was blocked as it was outside of my normal usage patterns. As they were satisfied that it was me it was unblocked.
Embarrassing but reassuring.

 

I think it's nationwide policy to block all cards aboard unless you tell them other wise
If I remember rightly it's in the small print of your account details.
YOU have to inform the bank via branch/online if you want to use your card aboard.
I did it via online banking telling them the date, country and duration
Great customer service at Nationwide I find too

 

I've been through something similar, also as a Nationwide customer. I was very grateful they spotted the dodgy activity and protected me. However the promised replacement card wasn't ordered and I was without any cards at all for 2 weeks. As I had flights, hotels and airport parking to book for a work trip, this caused huge problems for me. I now have a credit card, just for emergencies like this.

Also, I try to use cash back in shops whenever possible as this is the safest way to withdraw money without a trip to the bank.

 

Santander do the same but they also phone or text you to let you know there's a problem

 

Nationwide said they'd tried to phone me, but they have my number and I have no missed calls or voicemail. Unless their's is the number that I added to my block list after numerous silent calls. The thing is, even if they had phoned me, it would have done no good because I refuse to confirm any sensitive info with anyone that calls me, because I think you're more likely to get phones from someone pretending to be the bank than the actual bank themselves.

 

Its happened twice to me with my Natwest credit card.

They phoned me on both occasions and went though my statements with me, asking which were my transaction and which were not, the ones from the hotel in the Far East were not mine, nor a couple of small debits on Ebay.
I even had my new card stopped before I had chance to use it on one occasion.

I think, often its down to leaky bank security rather than us, but they wouldn't tell us that, would they?

 

It's very concerning all this card fraud and phishing , I have just checked my overdraft and thank goodness it is still there !
If one of these scumbags did access your current account , what is the maximum they can withdraw ? Would it be your balance + your overdraft limit ? If anything higher was requested would this bounce ?

 

HSBC gone done a while ago for this. It turned out that they'd outsourced the issuing of cards to India, and some people in the relevant department was setting up two copies of every card, one to be sent to the actual customer and one for themselves. Except that they'd get theirs before the customer did. I should point out that according to the news report, it was only a small faction that was responsible, and not the department as a whole.

It depends on your bank's policies, and to some extent your financial record. Sometimes they let you go hundreds of pounds over your overdraft limit.

 

That happened to me once when booking a holiday. The lady in Thomas Cook looked at me and said "oh, the computer is telling me to phone the bank". She did so with my permission, and within minutes we were back on. It was just because apparently booking a holiday was 'unusual activity' for me. Perhaps I should have took that as a hint to take more breaks. I quite fancy going to Kathmandu perhaps