POS will always be piece of shit to me.
In the UK, we all have contactless debit cards, which is quietly but effectively getting rid of real cash.
Still need cash at the chippy though.
I’ve had this problem many times. There was a stretch years ago when for eight months in a row I had fraudulent VISA charges on every statement in spite of new card numbers, new checking accounts, new savings accounts, and many visits to the bank, until I just left that bank. I think it’s about every 2-3 years something like this happens.
I learned never to do all my banking at one bank. It’s absolutely imperative to have 2 or 3 separate banks set up with checking, debit card, bill paying, and automatic payroll deposit, and at least $1000 or so in each one, with no way for the banks to move money between them (as would be the case for multiple accounts with one bank). I have 3. One time a couple years ago my most used card was breached and canceled late on a Friday, so Saturday morning I used another one to buy gas near the veterinarian, then tried to use it at a drug store to buy urgently needed insulin syringes for the cat, and it got cancelled on the spot. Days later at the bank they told me I should never use a card at a gas station and a drug store one after the other, as this appears to be fraudulent activity (how was I supposed to know that?!?). Thus I was reduced to my least-used account, meanwhile very low on currency and having shopping to do that weekend. I think only two active and funded bank accounts is unacceptable because of events like this.
On the plus side, every one of the items I disputed over the years was immediately provisionally refunded to my account as soon as I came to the bank, and the refund made permanent within a few days.
One bank told me that the internet was loaded with theft and fraud, and I shouldn’t use my debit card with any company that also has a web site. Note: it wasn’t just that I shouldn’t use the card on the site, no, much more restrictive than that! If a company has a web site, only use checks or currency when doing business with them, even in person.
Napier, that sounds like Bank of America. A friend of mine had similar problems with them over-analyzing his behavior. He finally just canceled his card, even though he had had it since the 1970s!
Was there no 24-hour service number you could have called to find out why it was declined?
The times I’ve had a card auto-suspended, I’ve always been able to contact the bank right away, verify that the purchases were mine, and get it un-suspended immediately. 5 minutes of annoyance and it’s all good.
What pisses me off is that sometimes (hell, USUALLY), the bank won’t even notify me it’s suspended. Years back I had an airline miles card that was administered by Shitibank. The second or third time it happened, I cancelled the account.
The time this happened after I had made a genuinely unusual purchase (Chase, not Shitibank), it got locked shortly afterward - but I admit that was my own fault for not noticing the email from the bank and calling to verify that it was legitimate. And another similar instance where as it happened the card had been compromised - the bank caught it that time - and I didn’t notice the email so they shut it down a day later. I set up text alerts after that.
I don’t know if my recent situation would have flipped the fraud alerts before long, or not. The one large-ish purchase was NOT out of line (90ish bucks for a meal, in NYC, where I’ve frequently used the card in the past). The two gasoline purchases, both in NJ - ditto (in fact I’ve bought gas from the same company, somewhere in NJ). The vending machine purchase wasn’t out of line. The parking meter was the only truly odd purchase, as I’ve never paid for parking in NYC and certainly not at a meter (didn’t even know those existed in NYC; I’ve never been insane enough to try to park a car there).
I agree on having backup banking arrangements in general. One time I thought I’d lost my wallet - the day before we were to go out of town for Christmas. I’d already cancelled everything… then found my wallet. Luckily my husband had his own credit card (we each have individual as well as joint), that we used for the weekend. A friend’s daughter just had her debit card compromised. The bank has backed out the overdraft fees but the actual money isn’t there yet, so she’s having to borrow from her mom.
Northern Piper, the above is an example of why I almost NEVER use the debit card for purchases. If that’s compromised, someone could make away with a fair bit of my cash. I’d eventually get it back but in the meantime, I’m screwed.