06 November 2017

Désactivée — the debit card story

I mentioned a few days ago that my Crédit Agricole debit card suddenly stopped working. It was mysterious, and it still is. Here's the follow-up. After the card stopped working and I discovered that I couldn't use it to pay for an order I wanted to place on Amazon.fr, Walt looked at the Crédit Agricole on-line banking site and saw that my card was no longer listed on our account. Pfft, just gone.

I phoned the bank's help line called SOScarte and I was told that the card was listed as inactive (same word in French and in English). I was advised to go to my local CA branch to get more information. It took me a few days to get to the bank, and when I did go it was pretty confusing. Meanwhile, we kept checking our account to see if there was any suspicious activity there. There has been none, except what I'm describing here.


At the bank, the clerk that I talked to looked at her computer screen and told me that the account the card was attached to had been closed. It told her that was surprising, and I couldn't imagine how that would have happened. She kept looking at her computer to see on what date the account had been closed. I told her I was expecting to receive my regular pension payment from the U.S. electronically that very day. Then she said sorry, I was wrong — the account is still open.

Okay, that was good news. Walt had just recently transferred a few thousand dollars from a U.S. account to the Crédit Agricole to cover our property taxes and other autumn expenses. I told the clerk what the approximate balance should be. She said she could see that balance and added that my pension payment had arrived as well.

She asked me if I had recently reported the debit card lost or stolen, or if I had contested any recent charges on it. No, I hadn't, I told her. When had I last used the card? About a week earlier, I said. In Paris, where I used it to buy a train ticket (I was returning from the U.S.) and at the local Intermarché supermarket. Both those charges showed up on the on-line banking site. I hadn't used the French debit card during my U.S. trip, because I have debit and credit cards on an American account for use there.


Somehow, the clerk said, my card had been reported as missing or stolen, and it had automatically been désactivée by the bank. She carefully checked the card number and confirmed everything. She even turned the computer screen toward me so that I could read it. I didn't have time to see all the details, though.

The only thing she could do, she said, was to put in an order for a new card in my name, and that getting it would take a week. She said she could keep my PIN (le code secret) the same if I wanted, and I said I did. She said I'd receive the code secret by mail (even though it's not changing, there was no other option), but that I'd have to go over to the Crédit Agricole in Montrichard to pick up the new card in about a week's time.

Montrichard? I was again surprised. I told her I had asked that the account be transferred to the Saint-Aignan CA branch more than a year ago, and it had been transferred, as far as I knew. She looked at her screen again and apologized. Yes, she said, you can come to the Saint-Aignan office to get the new card. It should be in by Friday.


I have to say that the clerk didn't really seem to be on top of her job. Since Walt also has a debit card on the account, we've been making do with that one, but it certainly is inconvenient. We have just one checkbook for the account, and I'm not sure if we would be allowed to have two checkbooks. Anyway, it's been so many years since I've written checks on any regular basis that I'd have a hard time writing one now.

It occurs to me that somehow our other code secret, the one we use to get access to our CA account on-line, was it too deactivated a few days before my debit card was deactivated, so there must be a connection between the two events. That time, Walt had had to go the bank to get a new on-line access code. It had to be sent to him as a text message on one of our mobile phones — that was the only option. Banks work in mysterious and unsettling ways.

19 comments:

  1. The clerk you dealt with sounds like a true asset to CA....

    Perhaps they are forcing you to change your passwords and get 2 step verification to up security. A bank I use recently, unilaterally, decided I should get a text code to my phone when I log in.

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    1. I have two codes to enter when I consult the bank account using my Android tablet — one for initial access, and a second for requesting update account information. That doesn't bother me. But I'm not sure the system is foolproof. I'm not worried about somebody else getting into the account, but I don't like it when I'm the one frozen out.

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  2. We are just back from visiting Sydney. In advance I topped up our Sydney public transport cards and that 'suspicious' transaction caused my Visa Debit Card to stop working. It was only a slightly protracted phone call to sort it out. Something to consider if you paid for something well away from where you live with the card.

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    1. The train ticket that I bought at the airport in Paris cost 14 euros. Seems like too small an amount to set off alarms.

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    2. The amount that set my card off as a suspicious transaction was only AU$20, about the same.

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  3. That exchange does not fill one with confidence in 'their' system. My UK Credit Card was put on hold-due to a 'shop' suggesting to the card company that 'something was not quite right'. Fine if fraud is suspected, but They did not tell me! I was the last to find out when a payment was refused as They had changed the card number.

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    1. I agree — the person I was dealing with did not inspire confidence. My card was not put on hold, but de-activated. Seems an extreme measure. I'm surprised that Crédit Agricole didn't send me a message by e-mail or SMS or snail mail to tell me that I needed to go to the bank for information and a solution.

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  4. When traveling abroad, it is advisable to let the bank know, beforehand. That doesn't help in Ken's case, as he was trying to use the card from home and he didn't use it abroad, but it can help others.
    Many years ago, I wanted to use my US card to buy a computer, here, in France. I knew this would set off alarms (past experience pays off) and called VISA before I went to the FNAC to announce the possibility of such a purchase, so that it would be accepted. It had nothing to do with a credit limit, it was just the "odd" nature of spending so much money in one go. The same was true when buying plane tickets for the whole family - six round trip tickets came to a significant amount and the purchase was routinely rejected until I'd call and tell the US bank it was really me and I was really at X travel agency trying to buy our tickets.

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    1. I've learned to call the bank before making an expensive purchase using a U.S. card. I remember driving to Romorantin one day to order fuel oil for our heating system, only to have my card refused. Forty miles of driving for nothing, and it's embarrassing when your card is turned down.

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    2. Back in the 90s, when I was coming to France on vacations, I would often call my U.S. bank to tell them I would be traveling and using my credit card. It didn't always make a difference back then. Maybe things are better nowadays (I'm such an optimist!). Here in France, I finally closed out one U.S. bank card because it was always a problem to use here.

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    3. I always notify 2 of my banks when I'll be travelling to Europe (but not when I go to Canada), but a 3rd one (just my credit card bank) won't take travel notifications any longer. What they sometimes do when a supposedly suspicious charge is made is that they let it go through but send me an email to ask me if it was OK. I guess if I say "No" they'd be able to reverse it before any money flowed. Also, I never use my debit card for on-line charges. That's almost universally the advice in the US, but I understand that may be different on Europe.

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  5. "I have to say that the clerk didn't really seem to be on top of her job."
    If I went to a bank here and the clerk I dealt with was on top of her job, I'd be astonished. About 99.9% of the time, all of my dealings with my banks are either on-line or at an ATM machine. I avoid calling or, heaven's forbid, going to my bank if at all possible.

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  6. Glad your problem is resolved now. I love modern day banking. I remember many bank visits with my mom as a child when banking was done inside the building and often in a line. ATM machines are great and drive throughs too. It all comes with a price when the computer or a employee makes a mistake. Like Bob I don't use my debit card for online purchases. My credit cards here come with perks, points for travel mostly. Do you have AF credit cards there? Or Amazon cards that earn you discounts? I find credit card problems more easily solved than bank issues.

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  7. I believe you are to pick up the card on November 10, right?

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  8. I think it is uncommon in France for people to have U.S.-style credit cards with revolving credit and high interest rates on unpaid balances. A lot of people have debit cards for everyday purchases (but weekly limits on purchase amounts and cash withdrawals are pretty low — under 500€).

    So the idea that you ought to use a credit card rather than a debit card for on-line purchases goes out the window. Of course I have a U.S. credit card for major purchases and expenses, but if I want to buy something with my euros I have to use my Crédit Agricole debit card, or write a check, or pay cash. French society and French banking are not credit-based as they are in the U.S.

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    1. Yes, Ken, I've read things on travel forums that indicated that the use of debit cards, and credit cards, in France is very different than in the US. As is the use of checks. Here in the US almost no one writes checks at stores, whereas in France it seems to be very common.

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    2. That's true, Bob. It surprising how many customers you see writing checks at the checkstands in French supermarkets. I think French debit cards are set up so that the holders have a small overdraft allowance. That's about the closest thing to a credit card we have here.

      French people don't talk about income, debt, or money matters in general. It's a cultural taboo. So it's hard to know exactly how people manage their finances and budgets.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?