Don't you just hate it when

General Chat
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You’re trying to buy your shopping and you forget that you’ve locked all your bank cards in your wallet.

Standing about looking like a numpty using card after card whilst it keeps declining, in the end I transferred some money from a pot and used Google Pay 🤦

Wasn’t until 5 mins after leaving i remember I’d not unlocked the card I wanted to use but by the 1st decline I was getting mad with the card as I know it’s got money available and then ask the rest doing the same :rofl:🤦:rofl:

I don’t usually carry my cards either to be fair so no idea why I picked them all up and no idea why I didn’t unlock the one I needed and used it via Google Pay… Epic fail

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Yep, happened to me at B&Q last week.

My Amazon credit card kept declining, and I could not understand why.

They don’t accept my American Express card.

So reliable Monzo was used instead, and the spare change thrown into my pot. (Worth more than the Amazon reward Points I would have achieved anyway).

Went in-app later to try and find out what the issue was and, for reasons unknown to me, I had frozen my Amazon Platinum card :man_facepalming:

Three receipts from that store. Two for declines.

Oh, and it had to be a day when everyone wanted to do DIY and long clues :scream:

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Would it be fair to say that had you also locked your Monzo card you would consider equally as unrealiable as you’re suggesting your Amazon credit card is :wink:

Nothing more frustrating for me than the few occasions I get last minute cash out and suddenly panic as I am using the ATM because I cannot remember if I enabled ATM transactions.

Equally annoying for me is when I go home to the U.S and have to re-enable magstripe on my Starling card every 24 hours.

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You keep all your cards frozen by default?

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I know a few people who do… I don’t get it myself, but it works for them

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I bet you’ve got an RFID wallet too! :rofl:

Especially at the moment. Get to the till, realise I’ve forgotten to unfreeze my card. FaceID doesn’t work because I’ve got a mask on. Pin to unlock my phone. Monzo app. FaceID doesn’t work because I’ve got a mask on. Pin to unlock. Unfreeze card.

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Only cards I keep frozen by default are Starling and HyperJar.

That is because their use is minimal and under certain circumstances.

Stops me from accidentally spending money that has been put aside for other expenses.

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Another strategy I have heard of people using, which is similar, is to keep all features locked except for internet payments, then add the cards to Curve. Minimal risk from the internet payments still being enabled as the same people say they only ever use one card online (possibly Curve, for example) so the other numbers would never leak.

Then, you can lock and unlock Curve in app as and when you need to use it, and this effectively locks and unlocks all of your cards. I don’t do any of this, though.

Although I’m sure I have also read of people who never gamble switching on the gambling block on Monzo precisely to stop fraudulent use of their card on gambling sites, just in case. I also don’t do that as, even though I’m not a gambler normally, if I suddenly wanted to enter the lottery on impulse or something I wouldn’t want an embarrassing decline.

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I never gamble, but still have the gambling block on :man_shrugging:

Not sure why.

Don’t even do the lottery :man_shrugging:

Fraud never entered my mind.

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Yeah I never do the lottery, but I have the feeling that maybe I might do it in the future so I’ve decided to just keep the block off.

It is off by default so you have to switch it on at some stage actively - and then you have to wait to switch it off so, while it’s good for the feature’s intended users, it would be potentially a problem for people who turn on for fraud reasons and then occasionally do gamble.

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I think Starling’s makes you wait 24 or 48 hours after deactivation before you can gamble. Not sure where I read that.

Never looked up Monzo one as no interest in gambling.

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Not sure either, but I think I remember reading that Monzo make you wait 48 hours. Some time delay anyway.

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Why do we panic when the card gets declined the first time :man_shrugging: :laughing: it’s the anger, stress, nerves and embarrassment from other people look and especially when you know you have funds in there.

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Exactly, and this is especially true since people don’t seem to know about SCA so they always assume a decline means you have no money in your account or (if a credit card) you are over your limit. Their judgement is then judgement both at your situation and assumed financial mismanagement!

Plus, as Americans would say, we are also slightly socially awkward in Britain so this sort of thing gets to us.

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If your card declines, you have to say “There’s definitely enough money in there” and the retail person has to say “I’m sure it’s just the machine. I’ll try it again”

Those are the rules.

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True.

It actually is the machine surprisingly often, especially if they have a bit of a dodgy implementation of contactless.