This author obtained a Halifax Mastercard specifically for low value purchase over the web. It never left the house, and sat securely in a draw. There had been a number of instances of “transaction declined”, but in April 22there were two consecutively.

Concerned that there may have been a compromise of the card, the help line was duly called. After 50 minutes on hold, the phone line clicked off. Routinely during the music on hold, a message stated that it might be more convenient to use the web chat service. Logging in to try this, a message was visible which said that the web chat was not available.

The ‘lost and stolen’ line was called in a desperate attempt to determine if there had been any fraudulent activities. after tortuous and disingenuous menu navigation, it appeared that this line closed at 17:00 and implored the caller to try the (not working) chat facility.

The Halifax app was then installed on mobile, and after some searching, the “freeze card” option was chosen. Halifax were then eventually contacted contacted on the following day, but no information on the two declines was forthcoming. A new card was in consequence thus requested.

This did indeed come very promptly, with a letter which stated that the PIN was the same, and the card was ready to use and activated, other than for ‘contactless transactions.

Since a notification had now been received from a supplier that a payment had failed, the relevant vendor account was entered on the web and the payment re-requested, It failed again, wit the same depressing message of the type ‘transaction declined’. Why ? Why can’t more information about the nature of the decline be provided?

So back to the start, and another long call. It transpired that (in spite of the letter saying the card was ready for use, that the freeze was still in force. It had(not unreasonably) been assumed that as it was a new, ‘ready to use’ card, any blocks on an old card would not have been carried through to a new one.

There was a realisation at this point that Halifax Mastercard services were not effective in the event of transaction rejections; had it been a security breach in this saga, loss of funds might have occurred, and Halifax would probably have made an accusation of failing to inform them of the problem (!)

The card was cancelled at that point.