The right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing…

You know banks are always telling you not to give out your account numbers etc. to people over the phone for fear that they may gain access to your account and clear it out?

Well it now appears that Tesco Visa have started asking for just this information as part of their security procedures!!!

On Monday my girlfriend phoned up Tesco Visa to pay off her card. The operator asked her the standard security questions… Name, date of birth, address, bra size, mother’s maiden name, name of the 3rd earl of Brunswickshire… The usual stuff.

The operator then went on to ask for my girlfriends bank sort code and account number. She gave this information, but only after questioning it. The operator then put my girlfriend on hold for ages until she got cold feet and hung up.

She immediately called her bank and reported what had happened. The bank told her that Tesco Visa should not have asked her for that information and that they would investigate.

Obviously this meant that her cards etc. had to be cut up, causing us shed loads of aggravation.

When she rang Tesco Visa back again, she was informed that these were now standard security questions….

So it would appear that we now have the situation where the banks tell us not to give out certain information but the credit card companies (or rather Tesco Visa) routinely as for said information!

No wonder credit card fraud is on the up!!!