Tandem Bank chat

My Tandem card didn’t work at Superdrug. Declined and ‘we suspect fraud’ in-app notification. Given there are lots of cards that don’t work at Superdrug (old Monzo cards didn’t, Amex doesn’t - though that’s a different issue, etc). I decided to peek through the logs on the card. The one difference I notice is in the second byte of the CVR for the Superdrug attempts. It’s 00000000, whereas it’s 01000000 for all other contactless transactions.

If my Google-fu is on target today, that translates to Combined DDA/AC Generation Returned In First Generate AC - now, I’m by no means a card or EMV expert, but could this be the cause of Superdrug compatibility issues? It looks like they’re not completing data authentication? Is that correct?

Also, a thumbs-up to Monzo. While these kind of thing may be rare in Britain they’re common in other countries. While Monzo may not like American/Israeli Coke machines and their infamous CVC mismatch, they do work in almost any other situation - including PayPass magstripe mode. Tandem’s a ‘travel card’ but it can’t even handle Superdrug?

1 Like

I’m a bit wary, they say they set up my direct debit but it’s not showing in my BoS app… Plus you have to do it by phone but the app ?! Doesn’t fill me with confidence

Yeah, the app is dreadful. they still haven’t got the touch/face ID working even though there is a switch for it.

Liking 0.5% cash back on the card though, especially as they take it off that month’s bill rather than once per year.

1 Like

It took TSB a few months from introducing the switch to getting it to do anything. And Santander have only last week updated their app to allow Touch ID, so they’re not alone.

Well I just paid off my Tandem bill. There’s also a refund from Amazon for £35, which wasn’t on the bill, so surely I should be £35 in credit? Nope - I apparently still owe £10.80. Tried in-app chat. Unseen after an hour. Tried to call - straight to voicemail! Honestly…

1 Like

Yeah, I’m not sure they are going to be around for long, it feels like a couple of people in a shed somewhere, on a shoestring budget, one ancient support PC (IBM 386 based), with half a shared programmer who doubles up as tea boy.

(But with loads of facebook influencers, so they can look trendy, innit)

5 Likes

It’s a shame as Tandem was the fintech company I was most excited about when I heard about the launch plans for each bank…Oh well.

1 Like

Just got this - first Tandem savings accounts available:
02

Edited to add: not sure I find the interest rate compelling enough to lock my money away

2 Likes

Anyone else received this? I’m still waiting for this one :thinking:.

Likewise I have not received it as yet.

Interesting that their grand launch rates come in worse than Atom’s market leading rates. They probably cant match the leading rate as they need to recoup the costs of all the paper statements and call centres and the tech glitch fallout costs, what with being a neo legacy bank.

I’ve not received it either. I’ve been thinking of closing my Tandem account recently.

I know it’s pre-release, testing or whatever - but you’d think the app would be at least at a basic level of functionally.

You can’t do anything at all with it apart from view a very basic list of transactions and it’s been that way for far too long.

1 Like

That 1 Year rate is competitive, though.

1 Like

I haven’t even activated my card yet…it’s difficult to want to swap out my Clarity card when it’s been go good to me…

General question for any Tandem credit card users on here. I was under the impression that the card is fairly classic in approach with paper statements and no integration with the app.

On the credit card page of their website (https://www.tandem.co.uk/credit-card/) they promote real-time spending alerts and have a pic of what appears to the bill in the app (?)

Can anyone either point me in the direction of a decent review / demo, or take the time to drop a few words how it works in practice?

Yes it’s basic, with paper statements and an app that has hardly any functionality, but you do get the real time spending notifications as their web site shows. You buy something, it pops up on your phone.

1 Like

Thanks! But no feed like Monzo? Servicing by phone?

1 Like

Looks like the market is crying out for a proper Fintech credit card, Tandem unfortunately don’t seem like they hold the answers. I guess we’ll all have to settle for Tandem combined with Curve to fill in some of the functionality Tandem is missing.

4 Likes

You get a list of transactions, but you can’t click into them for further details. Not had any need to call them yet so don’t know how good their phone support is.

I’m not sure I see the point at the moment. If you don’t have other reward cards or fx free cards it could be handy to have when travelling. Better to use a credit card than a debit card for hotel pre-auths and large bills I think.

I also don’t think screen scraping is the right way to have other accounts in one place.

1 Like

I just signed up for a Tandem credit card (my first! :tada:) so I can build a credit rating etc. (I don’t actually want or need the credit)

Onboarding is via the website only which was fine - it was a very quick and smooth process. The app seems fairly complicated and confusing - I didn’t seem to recognise I now had a card with them so I messaged support who replied fairly quickly, but didn’t really answer my question! (I inferred the answer: despite the website saying you’ve been accepted, there seems to be a back office process of “approval”)

Overall, looking forward to supporting another challenger :slight_smile:

8 Likes