Since moving to Vancouver, my Bank (RBC) has turned off my credit card and/or debit card for "security reasons" 5 times in 12 months, twice in the last 3 weeks. It's always a hassle, you have to go into your branch, wait half an hour in line, and sign some forms and get new cards.

They refuse to provide any information on what metrics they're actually using to determine if a potential "compromise" has taken place - the explanation they provide is that if they provide this information it may hurt their clients (i.e. give one of their customers a bad name) or may compromise a police investigation. They also say that their security mechanism is a "complex automated technology solution" and don't provide any details about what that actually means. The only advise they were able to provide was to "vary your spending patterns" - they can't even provide a time-frame for when the compromise may have taken place to help you narrow it down yourself.

Is 5 times a year normal to have to go through this? How are other financial institutions about providing information so you can decide which establishments to use your card at? I would understand if it was an isolated incident, but 5 times in a year, it seems that it's a vendor I go to on a regular basis. I'm very frustrated and considering switching financial institutions for a variety of reasons (failure to process automated payments, extended outages of debit service, an automated deposit that did not go through for 1 week, and having to yell at them over the phone before overdraft charges were removed because of the delay with said automated deposit)and wondering if other institutions are any more transparent or helpful when it comes to these situations.

That seems very suspicious. I'd switch to a better bank. I've never had a single problem with my bank. I use my debit card to buy food and use it online a lot of buy small things.

Only one time have I seen my card get rejected. I drove to Florida and made purchases along the way the next day my card didn't work at a store. It was legitimate though to lock my account since from their perspective I made charges in like 5 states in a short period of time. Called them up and it was fixed immediately. :P

Unless you have a reason to stay it sounds like bad customer service to me.

Sounds like a new bank is in order.

0 times in over 15 years.

The wait times you listed are obscene. I've never needed to wait more than 2-3 minutes to see somebody at any financial institution.

Personally, I would have vocally complained on the second time it happened, and left on the third time, with a written letter to the manager about why I left.

As an aside, you should probably consider credit unions over banks. In my experience they are much better in both quality and quantity of services offered, generally for free.

Just vote with your feet and switch banks. You have 4 left before your options run out.

I've only had one incident with my debit card in the decades I've had one, and none with my credit card. Investments, that's a different matter (seriously, they have a screening interview when hiring Personal Banking Representatives to weed out the competent). I also have no branch: the one I had moved and the building it was in was torn down, then the one it was transferred to was amalgamated into another, and now there is no physical record of my account anywhere. Cheques and payments still go through on time. I love living in the future (when I opened my first account, the books were updated in longhand before your eyes by the teller).

You can get reasonable retail service from a Canadian bank. Just switch.

One option that might get you a bit better of a response is to try and talk to a manager. Think of it like the people up front are scared to loose their jobs so they don't do anything that they think that will get them in trouble.

Anyways, for me, with a CIBC Visa card, in 15 years, I believe I've had 1 call regarding an unusual transaction, which was a bit unusual but they called me directly and didn't freeze my card or anything. Also, I had 1 call from BMO where someone skimmed my card and withdrew $2k from my account. They managed to pick up on what was going on I guess because of security built into the ATM. But they still wanted to verify with me before freezing my card. I wasn't on the hook for the money but it was a big inconvenience as I had bill payments coming out which would've gone NSF.

As for RBC, I have a couple friends with them but I've decided to avoid them wherever possible after one time (early 90s) they refused to accept a cash payment on my student loan that I had with them. Who the fuck ever heard of a bank refusing to take cash? I'm sorry, unless the money is counterfit there is not a single reason anyone could ever give me that justifies a BANK refusing a cash payment on a loan. It still takes effort to keep my head from exploding at the mere thought.

I have had my credit card stopped when abroad due to the change in routine - but that just required a phone call to confirm that I was the one making the purchases and it was ok again. Never had it happen with a debit card.

While it is annoying and you probably should change banks (due to the other problems), it seems your bank are giving you a pretty clear message. One of the places you visit regularly is suspected of skimming cards.

A good bank would give you a phone call and specifically ask you if you authorized the spurious charges.

I've also never waited more than ~5 minutes for service, except once when everyone at the bank had the flu and it was a friday payday.

And people still think governments are Big Brother...

Quote: A good bank would give you a phone call and specifically ask you if you authorized the spurious charges.

Good banks care about profit.

Banks do not block transactions to protect the customer. They block transactions where they could lose money. Whether this benefits or inconveniences the consumer doesn't matter to them.

For extreme case, see PayPal.

Quote: Original post by Antheus
And people still think governments are Big Brother...

Quote: A good bank would give you a phone call and specifically ask you if you authorized the spurious charges.

Good banks care about profit.

Banks do not block transactions to protect the customer. They block transactions where they could lose money. Whether this benefits or inconveniences the consumer doesn't matter to them.

For extreme case, see PayPal.

It most cost effective to keep your existing customers, keep them happy, and to detect and prevent fraud early.


If they allow easily-detectable fraud to take place without intervention they are only costing themselves. They are also providing a disservice to their customers.


I've actually had several places call me. But never had my cards shut down as described in the OP.

In one case I was on a trip and my vehicle broke down. I was quite a long way from my home state. Over the course of about an hour I spent over $1200 in auto parts stores at 3 different shops. Within the hour I got a cell call asking if the transactions were authorized.

I had another similar call back in my college days in the early 90's after spending over $400 in books at multiple stores within a few hours.

When I was house-sitting for someone who was traveling abroad, we got phone call asking about a bunch of credit card transactions overseas. I made a few calls to make sure the cards were not stolen, and made sure everything was fine.


The financial institutions are already watching for this type of behavior. Detecting it early means they bear much less cost in case of fraud and CC theft. It is a bonus that it helps you (the customer) detect and prevent fraud as well.