Using British credit and debit cards online

Some importnat news to be aware of.

I tried selling my motor bike (sitting in UK) on ebay but got thrown off the system - no explanantion from e-bay. I then tried to sell on autotrader and my credit card failed the test! I rang my credit card co who said it was fine!

The problem seems to be certain site software identifying a foreign (ie german) IP and therefore refusing the credit card. The only way around this is to telephone the companies concerned and conduct the business on the phone. A bit of a drag to say the least.

Solution? Well I'm going to get a german bank issued VISA card and se if that overcomes the problem. This is an issue for anyone who has moved here but is trying to dispose of stuff left in UK or anywhere else abroad.

I don't think this is correct. Never heard of anyone using IP tracking to screen credit cards - its just waaaaaay too unreliable. Are you sure you weren't getting in a mess with addresses. Clearly some sites for security will only deliver to the SAME address as the registered cardholder - and if you have a UK card it is "probably" still registered to a UK address and that is the problem. So they will deliver to the UK address only, or you need a German card with German registered address so it all checks out.


And again this is tosh. We sell tons of stuff on ebay UK and ebay Germany and of course are based here.

Well you may just be able to use the sites if you established them in UK. I am reporting what I was TOLD by the sites in question customer services on IP identification. In fact Autotrader were very helpful - tracked my "rejected" ad and took the credit card details by phone to activate at their end. They were very clear that a VALID UK card with VALID UK address would not work from a non - UK IP site.

My posting is for advice to others having problems with CERTAIN sites based in the UK.

New directives on money laundering came into effect in November - especially for banks who will now send all your details with any money tranfers (address, account number etc ) and increasingly internet sites are tightening up their finacial security management systems.