Tesco glitch locks RBS and NatWest cards

The Royal Bank of Scotland has blamed Tesco for a technical glitch which has seen some customer cards locked after being used at the supermarket's petrol stations.

RBS and NatWest customers took to Twitter yesterday to complain that their cards were being declined and then locked:

@NatWest_Help At Tesco pay at pump, partner tried 3 times with correct pin but declined then blocked. What number do we call to unblock it?
- Liam Kirton (@liamkirton) January 2, 2014

Customers were told to unblock their cards at RBS and NatWest ATMs but, having seen its reputation tarnished by several recent high profile technology meltdowns, the banking group was quick to stress that its systems were not to blame:

@SuesAshton Hi Susan, we are aware that Tesco are having issues with there terminals, they are aware of this. AS
- RBS Help (@RBS_Help) January 2, 2014

Yesterday evening Tesco confirmed that it is "investigating reports of problems affecting some of our pay-at-pump services" and the issue appears to have been resolved by this morning.

Related Companies

NatWest Royal Bank of Scotland Tesco Bank

Channels

Retail banking Payments

Keywords

Cards Eftpos

Comments: (3)

Jonathan Rosenne - QSM Programming Ltd. - Tel Aviv 03 January, 2014, 13:18

Be the first to give this comment the thumbs up

0 likes

I suppose they were using offline PIN verification. If it were online I don't see how it could have been Tesco's fault.

Report abuse

A Finextra member 03 January, 2014, 14:03

0 likes

It is the UK, offline PIN only (in general) at UK point of sale machines. ATM's are online PIN so easy enough for cardholders to go to any UK ATM and unlock their cards.

So tesco seem to have an issue passing the correct PIN to the card.