[UK] Premature replacement of credit card

[Oxx]

Nationwide has, unsolicited, sent me a replacement credit card a couple of years before my current one expires.  The new one has an extended expiry date.  The accompanying letter says that the sometimes do this as a "security precaution", but that I had nothing to worry about.  Has this ever happened to anyone else? Should I be concerned that perhaps Nationwide has leaked my credit card details?

 

(Faintly ludicrously, but when previously I asked for a replacement card a couple of months early since I was going to be away when the card expired they refused.)

[OJAS]

Hmm, I smell a rat here. Might be worth your while calling Nationwide to check whether it was, indeed, they who sent you this card before using it.

[dabhand]

This happened to me about 2/3 weeks back.

I had called Nationwide as I was having some problems with the card being accepted, both for Tops and online with Lazada. I called and asked why rejections were happening and was told that a replacement card was on its way to me, quite unsolicited ( my existing card still had two years validity).

Whether the rejections were connected with the issuance of a new card (and new number) is not known but unlikely to be unconnected.

Anyway the new card arrived and have had no problems with its use. Don't have access to the covering letter so can't recall their reason for the early replacement.

[Oxx]

Nationwide has replied to a message from me:

 

Quote

 

After a review of your credit card account, I can confirm that your previous credit card statements have been removed from your online banking as we have recently replaced your card. We receive information from different sources about potential compromises of card details. This information comes from within the financial services industry and from law enforcement agencies. We have reason to believe your card details may have been compromised. As a result of this we have placed your account into an increased state of security and a new card has been issued to you. Your new card was issued on 20 February 2018 and you should receive this in the next 5-7 days. Please continue to use your current credit card until you receive the replacement. Your current credit card ending 3621 will remain active for two weeks from the date your replacement card was issued. Your pin will remain the same.

 

As your credit card number is changing, any previous credit card statements referencing your old card number will be removed from your online banking. Unfortunately it is a system restriction that means that only one credit card number (and therefore associated statements) can ever be held on the online bank. This means when the card number is changed (this could be a product upgrade or if the card has been lost or stolen) the old statements will be lost.

 

I do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you require copies of any previous credit card statements please let me know and I will arrange to send these out to you, free of charge.

Unfortunately, we are not always informed of where the card data may have been compromised and legally we cannot provide any further details. Please be assured that our security monitoring system will continue to monitor your account and any suspicion will be reported accordingly.

If for any reason your card was required to be blocked and transferred again, to prevent any issues of previous statements being unavailable electronically, it may be advisable to download pdf copies monthly, for your own personal records, as online statements are only available for 24 months. After this time period, they are again unavailable electronically.

 

 

[RichCor]

...so a data breach they were unaware of and had to be told about, "We receive information from different sources about potential compromises of card details. This information comes from within the financial services industry and from law enforcement agencies."

 

Nice.

[Speedo1968]

I had a similar thing happen with Nationwide a few years ago.   Have been banking with them for nearly 40 years.

They stopped my card with only 7 months left to run and issued a new card, reason I was no longer resided in the UK.

The new card was deactivated before sending and I had to go online to activate it.

 

I know it can be inconvenient when they block a payment and ask you call, they did this when I didn't use the card for a long time.    A quick call from the shop I was in in Thailand and the payment was allowed.

They also stopped a payment when I had visited the UK for a few days and made various payments in shops and online, good for them as they stopped an unauthorised online payment.

 

At least they have advised you about providing you with your statements FOC.    They reimbursed me once for an extraordinary long phone call from Thailand.

 

Any new cards posted to you overseas will be deactivated and unusable until you contact them and pass a security test. Your new card may have a 7 digit number on the back, not 3 as before and, for internet banking, if you have a card reader the number of security digits has also increased.

 

 

[Pib]

On 3/14/2018 at 9:27 PM, RichCor said:

...so a data breach they were unaware of and had to be told about, "We receive information from different sources about potential compromises of card details. This information comes from within the financial services industry and from law enforcement agencies."

 

Nice.

Yeap, likely the company had a data breach and trying to minimize/prevent damage such as fraudulent transaction while of course using weasel/round- about talk to keep news of the data breach from going mainstream media.  Unfortunately, data breaches are becoming all too common now days, both in companies and government. 

[Oxx]

Not their first data breach, either.  They were fined just short of a million pounds a few years ago.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6360715.stm

[OJAS]

3 hours ago, Oxx said:

Not their first data breach, either.  They were fined just short of a million pounds a few years ago.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6360715.stm

Hmm, I do seriously wonder whether your and @dabhand's experiences at least might have been a direct consequence of this particular data breach (although it is, of course, highly unlikely that Nationwide would willingly admit to this). But, if this were, indeed, the case then it would appear (to me at any rate) extremely troubling that it had taken Nationwide a whole year to get their finger out to rectify matters in your and his cases, despite their soothing utterances. And how many of the remaining affected 11 million might still be waiting to hear from Nationwide in 1 form or another?