Checking your bank statement

Lemontart

Germanshepherdsmum

I never use my debit card except to withdraw cash - it’s too easy for your bank details to be captured and sold on and potentially your account emptied. I always use my credit card, I have never been told that I must use my debit card in a shop ‘to initialise it’.

You have to use your card with the pin number before you can use it contactlessly.

Yes you do, even with a new credit card, this must be done once. Just imagine the field day crooks would have if you only had to swipe your card without the first security measure.

Must admit I check my banking every other day, if not daily.

Germanshepherdsmum

I never use my debit card except to withdraw cash - it’s too easy for your bank details to be captured and sold on and potentially your account emptied. I always use my credit card, I have never been told that I must use my debit card in a shop ‘to initialise it’.

You have to use your card with the pin number before you can use it contactlessly.

I recently had a very satisfactory result of protection from Santander. It did result in me having to wait 6 working days (was quoted 4) to get both Debit and Credit cards replaced, but I was more than satisfied with the result.
I look at the smaller amounts closely at least once a month. I did miss one on a separate Lloyd's account but managed to stop it eventually but did pay around £100 before I noticed it. Made me more careful in future though.

I have only been scammed once and immediately got a text message from Barclaycard to ask if it really was me buying something in New York and getting tickets for Manchester United. I called the number they gave and the payment was immediately cancelled and my card blocked and a new one sent.

Another time they rang to check a payment of €1500 or so but that was genuine: my son had asked me to book a flight for him.

I don't use my debit card except to get cash at the bank because they started charging €0.8 for every transaction a couple of years ago. I always pay with my credit card and that way I only have the one big transaction per month from my current account.

And if you get a new card of any sort, the first time you use it you have to insert it into the machine and type in your pin. You can't do a contactless payment for the first use of the card. I think that is what is meant by "initialising".

M0nica Thanks for the correction. Here they are reporting that Eastern European and some of the “stan” countries are being setup by the Russians to do this. Also Iran.
It’s everywhere.

Over a decade ago there was a mix up with a pub with rooms booking I had made with booking.com. It was the pubs fault, they had copied the booking by hand into their diary on the wrong day. Luckily I had the printout with me and was able to prove my booking date.
They were full, but were able to put us up in a B&B across the road. It was shut for refurbishment but two rooms had been finished and we were comfortable accommodated. The original booking had been for a room only but we got breakfast at the B&B so all in all a good outcome.
When I got home I checked my bank statement just to make sure I hadn't been charged twice and saw to my horror several small outgoings over the previous 48 hours, amounting in total to around £1000. The payments were linked to my Paypal account and Paypal reimbursed me in full, with the separate amounts reappearing in my bank account over the next few days until everything was square.
Around the same time I started to receive emails from people accusing me of putting goods up for sale on Ebay and not sending them. The amounts stated by the people were identical to the amounts taken out of my account.
To this day I cannot fathom out how this was all connected (I'm certain it was) and despite being very happy with Paypals service I have not used them or Ebay since.

Gundy
Not Eastern European, Far East. Passports are the Eastern Europeans forte. 😉

Anybody watched ‘Scam Interceptors’ on BBC one. We are up against some relentless, heartless fraudsters in this whole business.

Cardinal rule in this day and age of scammers is - check your balances Every Single Day.

I do first thing every morning when I get up. Online banking (which I do) is actually as safe as not doing it. But be vigilant and report immediately if you see or suspect something.

I read what MeryStreep wrote about Eastern European scamming organizations. TRUE!

The worst thing that could happen is if your identity is stolen. It can practically ruin your life and takes a long time to recover. Thankfully not me or my family or friends, but the news stories of how they do it are frightening.

Don’t risk it Greciangirl. It’s better to avoid your account being cleared out than to find out after the event. There is no good reason to pay for anything by debit card. And using your debit card doesn’t give as much protection as using your credit card if there are problems with your purchase, whatever the value. Some sites save your card details whether you agree or not, and can be hacked. Keep your debit card in your purse and only use it to withdraw cash!

I pay in shops and online for most of my purchases with a debit card and for anything of value with credit card.

So far, so good.
But online banking is so convenient. I can check immediately and daily if I wish to.

A couple of years ago I was checking my online statements. I have 3 different accounts with same Bank.

Only 2 appeared which was most unusual. It had £10,000+ in it so I couldn’t understand where it had gone. I got in touch and apparently because I had not used that one for a long time they classed it as “dormant”. I argued that I hadn’t been told and I should still be able to keep track of it. What if I went doolally and forgot all about it, where would it end up? Or worse, if I died and my executors never knew it existed. I complained and they gave me £100 compensation I believe.

My youngest son ( 42 ) was recently a victim of Identity theft…he was sent a missive from Barclaycard refusing ‘his’ application to open a cc…luckily after this he spotted that a new card with HSBC had been opened up when he checked his Experian account ( a finance security site) …all of a whirl in a while whilst he tried to sort all this out …luckily it was resolved, but as HSBC said ( after £2000 had been taken out of that ‘new’ card….”how do we know to wasn’t you?”
A lesson to us all to check regularly!
For mei do check regularly because my accounts are in the red so often I have to keep a sharp eye on them!

Really useful info has come up here, thanks. 👍

My debit card hardly sees the light of day. I use credit cards for everything for the reasons set out by GSM above.

You can only initialise from a cash machine. I had to do mine recently.

Been with Nationwide for 35 years, debit and credit cards, and mum and gran were too. Not had any problems, use online banking and when I've had OAP moments they've responded and helped kindly.

Hi I realise not everyone keen to have account linked to phone however I personally feel it helps to keep an eye on things 🙂

I do agree with GSM about using credit cards for large purchases, gifts, holidays etc as there is more consumer protection and their chargebacks are quicker and easier (ie when items are disputed)

I’ve had online banking almost since it was set up, we have three accounts between us, my mum also has me set up online banking for her and she had four accounts. We’ve not experienced any more fraud than you would using your debit card itself and credit cards can also be subject to fraud. I check our online accounts daily, as I did my mum’s accounts when she was with us.

MerylStreep

NanKate
Can I ask why you don’t have online banking. If you did you could check your a/c as many times a day as you want instead of waiting a week.
Your bank account could have been wiped out in that week.

I totally agree with you. I've used online banking for years, I'd never go back to going into a bank or doing phone call transactions. I use the post office if I need to put money in. I'm 62 it's not hard.

Yes, you certainly should be using your credit cards for safety and for the additional protection that paying by credit card gives if there’s a problem with your purchase.

I have always used my debit cards for day to day transactions so that I know that whatever is in my bank accounts is mine to spend and no other payments are due to be taken. Any extra large paymts are made via credit card so that I have the extra guarantees.
Having read the above responses I'm now having a rethink and perhaps should be using my credit cards more although it might mean monitoring payments more closely as credit card amounts are cleared automatically from current accounts each month so would have to make sure sufficient funds are available each month.

Germanshepherdsmum

You should always check your spam emails Nannarose. Opening them does no harm, just don’t click on any links.

Thanks GSM. I used to check the sender & subject - and delete if I didn't recognise. That's probably why I deleted the 'shopping club'. So now I will.