When I was in a shop yesterday the assistant said he had to carry out two transactions with C&P on my card for fraud prevention.
He first charged me £1 (which he claimed was refunded) and then charged me the full amount in a separate transaction. It look ages. If I could find the product elsewhere I would have walked out.
Can anyone enlighten me how this could prevent fraud?
Similar to my local restaurant where they check the card is legit and works before taking any orders....but they do not draw any funds. They give me back a blank transaction sheet when they run the bill off. So long as its legit I suppose its just another method of playing safe.
The circumtances were different in my case since I was at a checkout trying to pay for a product in a shop. They could have checked the card was legit by just charging the purchase price, rather than run through two transactions.
Before taking orders? They ask you as soon as you come in how you propose to pay? That sounds distinctly odd. That sort of overt mistrust by the restaurant of its diners ought to be reciprocated by the diners insisting on inspecting the state of the kitchen and the freshness of the ingredients before deciding what to order, if anything. It's ridiculous, but fair enough, I suppose, if they've had a lot of trouble with people coming in to eat and then being unable to pay. Must be a dodgy area.
In any case, this does not appear to be similar to the situation described by the OP, unless he left out some important detail. He didn't say anything about doing something to the product inbetween the two transactions which might have rendered it unresellable, like eating part of it or breaking a seal or what have you. The story was presented as if it was an ordinary retail transaction for one item. Surely if the card was going to fail for £1 it would also have failed for the full amount. Moreover, if it succeeded for £1 it might still have failed for the full amount if the credit limit was reached.
It was an ordinary retail transaction for an item sold in a sealed box souced from a stockroom. Therefore there was no chance of me stealing it/looking at it/or doing anything to it before paying.
Indeed I was informed by my credit card company that fraudsters often do small value transactions to test the card details before using it to buy more valuable items. What this shop did could easily trigger a phonecall from my CC's fraud department again.
"Ronald Raygun" wrote
I wonder, if you say you'll be paying by cash, whether they ask to check the genuiness of your coins & notes beforehand?!!
I often eat and drink out and when ordering drinks ask for a Tab to be set up. Most places will only do this if you are paying by card and it seems a sensible procedure for them to verify the card. There is no obligation to pay with that card at the end of the meal but it does act as insurance if you do a runner.
s'll related to fraud prevention..........no matter what or how they do it.
In message , Mark wrote
That's very bad news - the £1 transaction is likely to trigger the automatic anti-fraud protection at the card company's end. At best this will lead to some inconvenience and you will have to answer some security questions and confirm your last 10 transactions. At worst it will trigger an automatic suspension of your card.
"rupert" wrote
How does it "act as insurance"?
I guess you could be traced from the details on your card? and I have a suspicion that they might just debit the card on the "purchaser not present system" as they already have sufficient details from the original voided transaction perhaps. I must admit I thought all pubs/clubs etc adopted the card/tab approach but perhaps it's just a local custom .
I have been going to that pub for 20 years and cannot recall when I have not had to have my card scanned before eating. It does not deter me from using the pub because,
I have also been to other local pubs that take the order without proof of any payment. I have also used a not to local pub that take your card and hold it in a putter jug on the top shelf before dishing up.
I monitor my card account on a regular basis and have a policy of using that
1 credit card all the time with my other debit bank cards kept in a safe, inside another safe, at home. This all stems from having been paid a visit to my then engineering workshop by 2 tinkers. While one entertained me downstairs the other went through my brief case upstairs, taking wallets with all my cards.
A shop is quite different from a restaurant. The shop will simply refuse to sell you the goods if the credit card transaction fails and you have no other means of paying. The restaurant cannot take the food and drinks back after you have consumed them. I also fail to see how the first £1 transaction in the shop helps to prevent fraud.
"rupert" wrote
Perhaps, but then they'd still need to get the money from you - it's not "insured" elsewhere...
"rupert" wrote
... and I have a suspicion that they might just get a "chargeback" after doing that!!
"rupert" wrote
That doesn't mean that they have your authority to do so!!
It's a simple pre - authorisation, used by hotels and restaurants. If you fail to check out/ pay, they'll simply apply the bill to the card. I stay in lots of hotels where this is the case.
"Rich" wrote
How much do they get pre-authorisation for?
"Rich" wrote
What if the bill comes to more than you previously authorised?
AIUI Tesco filling station 'pay at pump' also does this £1 thingy. What I don't understand is why it seems to hang around on the account for days afterwards.
I'm not sure about your claim about triggering the anti-fraud measures though. Recent experience suggests that the system run by my CC provider is well aware of the nature and purpose of these odd £1 transactions.
Tesco's Online Groceries take £2 at the point of checkout, and the full amount when the shopping has been picked and put on the van for delivery. It normally takes 5-7 days to credit back to the card account. On another note, why Don't Tesco accept Visa Electron for Online Groceries, but they do for Tesco Direct?!
Bitstring , from the wonderful person Clifford Frisby said
Yes, but they are also used by people who have managed to skim the/a card number and wonder if it'll work. I've had two cards pulled when such £1 transactions showed up from funny foreign places, without matching PIN (there isn't one) CVC number (unknown) etc.
Okay, but isn't it the additional aspects (foreign places, no PIN, no CVC), rather than the fact that it's a £1 transaction, that triggers the pulling of the card?
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