Mobile provider blocked my service for not sharing credit card details

Kamyl

Hi Everyone.

I signed a 24 moths contract with a mobile provider.
I'm up to date with my bills, but my card expired and the only way my mobile provider lets me update it is by calling the customer care and sharing all my credit cards details with a person who will update it manually.

I'm not happy with sharing the details with a stranger so I suggested - I paid my last bill manually and I can continue doing this myself (there is such option in the client panel)

They will let me do this, BUT they still want me to share my credit cards details with a human being (which i found very insecure) and they wont unlock my mobile service.

So - even though I pay my bills and i want to continue paying them for the remaining 4 months - my calls are blocked and they refuse to fix this.

Is this legal? Do I have to continue paying if I dont receive the service? Why do I need to bother with their new internal process?

Can you please advice?

L1011

You are refusing to provide payment, its entirely legal for them to cut you off. You are being unreasonable.

Its likely that a human will be involved in processing any update you do another way.

Kamyl

1) I'm not refusing to provide payment and I'm happy to continue paying my bills.
2) I always pay my bills. I dont own them any money, my payments are up to date.
3) Human is not involved in processing the manual payment I do myself - It goes through automated system that doesnt store my credi tcard details.
4) I'm happy to pay for all future bills manually
5) I'm happy to setup a direct debit manually without sharing my credit card details with a stranger

Why do you call it unreasonable? I don't think sharing credit card details with a stranger via phone is a good practise and I believe that both solution that I proposed are reasonable.

njs030

When you signed a contract with them did you agree to pay your bills by card?

Kamyl

I do pay my bills by card online in my client panel.

Let me read my contract I will reply when I found something about this.

EDIT: I have just read my contract. It does mention the lentgh, amount etc but It does not specify the way of making the payment. It does list last 4 digits of my expired card.

As I mentioned before - I'm happy to pay with card. It's just this new process (you HAVE TO share the new credit cards details with a human) that I dont like. Why am I forced to do this?

Please note: I'm not trying to avoid payments.

L1011

Kamyl wrote: »

As I mentioned before - I'm happy to pay with card. It's just this new process (you HAVE TO share the new credit cards details with a human) that I dont like. Why am I forced to do this?

Because that is how their payments system is set up. As are hundreds of other businesses.

You are being unreasonable.

Giving them the number online is not guaranteed to be any more secure and in cases of repeat debits off cards like this rarely is.

Kamyl

L1011 wrote: »

Giving them the number online is not guaranteed to be any more secure and in cases of repeat debits off cards like this rarely is.

This is not true.

1) Most online payment system do not store the credit card details for security reasons. They only store a reference that is used to proceed the payment.

2) Providing credit card details online is secured with 128 bit SSL connection and no human being is involved in the process (ie. no airline, hotel booking site, online retailer can see the actual sensitive informations)

3) Providing credit card detail with a stranger might be a common thing in this country, but if this is not specified in the contract then why do I need to agree to this? "Because they want it" does not convince me. It sounds not fair that one side of the transaction can dictate the rules to the other.

Maybe i'm missing something, but it does not seem right.

ED E

Im sorta with Kamyl on this one, SS7 is totally insecure and call recordings may not be treated with the sensitivity of financial data.

It would be my last port of call, but I wouldnt go this far and cause myself the stress. Get a Revolut card and pay them that way Kamyl.

njs030

Kamyl wrote: »

I do pay my bills by card online in my client panel.

Let me read my contract I will reply when I found something about this.

EDIT: I have just read my contract. It does mention the lentgh, amount etc but It does not specify the way of making the payment. It does list last 4 digits of my expired card.

As I mentioned before - I'm happy to pay with card. It's just this new process (you HAVE TO share the new credit cards details with a human) that I dont like. Why am I forced to do this?

Please note: I'm not trying to avoid payments.

As said above you're being unreasonable. The human you're referring to isn't a random person off the street they are an employee of the company who will type your details into the computer as you read them out.
The employee will be linked to the process so you can be assured that your details are safe.

L1011

Kamyl wrote: »

, but if this is not specified in the contract then why do I need to agree to this? .

It does not need to be specified in the contract

You made an agreement to pay by card, the card has expired and you are refusing to give them updated details.

Kamyl

notjustsweet wrote: »

As said above you're being unreasonable. The human you're referring to isn't a random person off the street they are an employee of the company who will type your details into the computer as you read them out.
The employee will be linked to the process so you can be assured that your details are safe.

You're being unreasonable by ignoring the fact that someone else get access to your credit card details and that the phone call is not a secure way of passing credit card details.

ED E wrote: »

Im sorta with Kamyl on this one, SS7 is totally insecure and call recordings may not be treated with the sensitivity of financial data.

It would be my last port of call, but I wouldnt go this far and cause myself the stress. Get a Revolut card and pay them that way Kamyl.

This sounds like a great idea that will satisfy both sides. Thank you!

L1011

Kamyl wrote: »

You're being unreasonable by ignoring the fact that someone else get access to your credit card details and that the phone call is not a secure way of passing credit card details.

Nobody is ignoring that.

You are refusing to give the contracted payment details via the only method they have of doing it.

Get a disposable card if you are that determined not to do it - there is no way to force the provider to change their systems for you.

njs030

Kamyl wrote: »

You're being unreasonable by ignoring the fact that someone else get access to your credit card details and that the phone call is not a secure way of passing credit card details.

I explained to you that your details were linked to the person taking the call.
Im not being unreasonable at all I was trying to help you!

Kamyl

L1011 wrote: »

Nobody is ignoring that.

You are refusing to give the contracted payment details via the only method they have of doing it.

Get a disposable card if you are that determined not to do it - there is no way to force the provider to change their systems for you.

This is not the only method they have.
They provide me with a manual payment form which I used multiple times.
This particular time they changed rules and require me to do as mention earlier.
Apologise if it was not clear.

Getting a disposible card is the way to go.

Thanks everyone. EOT

GerardKeating

notjustsweet wrote: »

As said above you're being unreasonable. The human you're referring to isn't a random person off the street they are an employee of the company who will type your details into the computer as you read them out.
The employee will be linked to the process so you can be assured that your details are safe.

There was actual a case in Cork, an employee of a Call centre, taking card details from customers and making the odd copy for them selves, they got caught fairly quickly and all the affected clients were reimbursed.

And one recently.

But it much easier to track this kind of cc fraud down.

GerardKeating

Kamyl wrote: »

You're being unreasonable by ignoring the fact that someone else get access to your credit card details and that the phone call is not a secure way of passing credit card details.

How did you give them your card details at the start of the contract, did you not share them with a "human" at that time?

Giving the details over the phone might actually be safer than giving them online, what if there is malware or a virus on your computer that compromises your card details.

CeilingFly

Kamyl wrote: »

Hi Everyone.

I signed a 24 moths contract with a mobile provider.
I'm up to date with my bills, but my card expired and the only way my mobile provider lets me update it is by calling the customer care and sharing all my credit cards details with a person who will update it manually.

I'm not happy with sharing the details with a stranger so I suggested - I paid my last bill manually and I can continue doing this myself (there is such option in the client panel)

They will let me do this, BUT they still want me to share my credit cards details with a human being (which i found very insecure) and they wont unlock my mobile service.

So - even though I pay my bills and i want to continue paying them for the remaining 4 months - my calls are blocked and they refuse to fix this.

Is this legal? Do I have to continue paying if I dont receive the service? Why do I need to bother with their new internal process?

Can you please advice?

This type of stupid query comes up every now and again.

Usually it's just an excuse to rant or be an "affected" person and it is just so utterly stupid.

EVERY time you hand your card over to a retailer, the retailer's slip carries all the information you are so "afraid" to give.

Name, Card number and expiry - only thing it does not record is the 3 digit on the back and your pin number.

The 3 digits on the back can be read by any retail staff.



So do you have an issue using your card in a retail stores or in restaurants?

I would guess not - total strangers on €10 an hour able to see ALL the exact same details you will give over the phone and its all printed out for them - EVERY time you use your card. But you have an issue giving it on the phone - why? Probably because its a big bad corporate company and you have "issues" with big bad corporate companies.


I can assure you - there will be far far far more pertinent and valid issues in your life than giving basic card details on the phone to a compnay you have a contract with and who probably have far better data security than 90% of retail stores.

I reckon its just a reason for you to have a whinge.

Gooser14

CeilingFly wrote:

EVERY time you hand your card over to a retailer, the retailer's slip carries all the information you are so "afraid" to give.

Why would you hand your card over to a retailer? I would never do this.

njs030

Gooser14 wrote: »

Why would you hand your card over to a retailer? I would never do this.

I think you've missed the point of the post? Regardless if you physically hand it to them or not the slip that they retain has your card details on it.

(Before the whole no it doesnt/yes it does debate starts its been proven previously that unless the retailer specifically has asked for the details of all cards to be redacted or they have had multiple problems with fraud it is shown)

bucketybuck

Kamyl wrote: »

1) I'm not refusing to provide payment and I'm happy to continue paying my bills.
2) I always pay my bills. I dont own them any money, my payments are up to date.
3) Human is not involved in processing the manual payment I do myself - It goes through automated system that doesnt store my credi tcard details.
4) I'm happy to pay for all future bills manually
5) I'm happy to setup a direct debit manually without sharing my credit card details with a stranger

With respect though, thats what you would say. Unfortunately its also what a less financially reliable person would also say, and so I can understand why companies can't really make decisions based on such promises.

Gooser14

notjustsweet wrote:

I think you've missed the point of the post? Regardless if you physically hand it to them or not the slip that they retain has your card details on it.

notjustsweet wrote:

(Before the whole no it doesnt/yes it does debate starts its been proven previously that unless the retailer specifically has asked for the details of all cards to be redacted or they have had multiple problems with fraud it is shown)

Retailer's slip doesn't have the expiry date or card holder name. Also, I have never seen the full card number on the retailer's slip.

njs030

Gooser14 wrote: »

Retailer's slip doesn't have the expiry date or card holder name. Also, I have never seen the full card number on the retailer's slip.

It does have the expiry date and why would it need the name.

I'll refer you back to the second part of my post in relation to your second sentence!!

Gooser14

notjustsweet wrote:

It does have the expiry date and why would it need the name.

Never seen the expiry date on any of my receipts!

EKRIUQ

My house insurance was due today, I rang them up with the telephone number on my invoice and gave them my card details.
Process took 2 minutes and my house is insured again.

OP I recommend you do the same but if you want to argue with people on the internet while your phone is cut off that's your prerogative.

A lot of companies want a credit card on their system as there sick of people running up huge bills and never paying, not expecting you to do this but other people do.

njs030

Gooser14 wrote: »

Never seen the expiry date on any of my receipts!

I'm not gonna keep saying the same thing.

Mr. Incognito

Set up a direct debit?

CeilingFly

Gooser14 wrote: »

Retailer's slip doesn't have the expiry date or card holder name. Also, I have never seen the full card number on the retailer's slip.

some do, some don't. Depends on what PCI compliance systems they have.

PCI at terminal - middle details blocked.

PCI internal systems of security, card details visible.

CeilingFly

Gooser14 wrote: »

Never seen the expiry date on any of my receipts!

It won't be on the customer receipt as they donlt need to keep them and give a copy in case of dispute.

I'm looking at a merchant copy

It states

Type of card
Card number
Expiry
Name


For PCI compiance we must hold these in a locked safe for 6 months and then they have to be security shredded and a receipt for the shredding must be kept on record.

On my own copy of a transaction in a shop earlier it blocks the middle 8 digits, no name and no expiry.



This has been the same for years.

So OP needs a reality check and stop the fluffing

Cerco

The Op should realize that no matter how they provide the card details some person or persons will have access to them. This is a simple fact.
How would payments be made otherwise unless the information was recorded and accessible as required for charging and payment?

vectorvictor

With respect OP you give the impression that you are either extremely paranoid , pedantic or simply enjoy a battle. You would most likely be better off changing to a pay as you go plan if you are unable to comply with the terms of your bill pay contract.

davo10

As usual with threads like this, it's a failure of the consumer to read/understand the terms and conditions of the service they sign up for. If you enter an agreement with a service provider, you are bound by the t&cs agreed when the service commenced. If you renege on the agreement, the service is withdrawn.