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Hi. I took out the Cooperative cashminder account about a month ago and have just started using it, unfortunately I am having problems with the debit card facility on it. The card is being declined regularly despite there being £3000 available cash in it. It has been turned down 3 times already this week alone!! I have rang the Cooperative a few times and have been told that they have NOT declined it and it may be a problem with the places I am trying to use it not accepting that particular card. I have never heard of that before...I previously banked with Nationwide and never have had any probelms over the years. I don't know what I am going to do now as the card is no used to me if there is no knowing what companies accept it etc...Has anyone else had this problem with Coop or heard of anything similar? Can anyone recommend a different basic bank account that would accept us with a poor credit rating? Debts are with Nationwide, Barclays, Natwest, Mint, MbNA, Halifax, Tesco,Lloyds TSB, First Direct, Capital One,.

Hi
I think the card is still classed as an Electron card and you can't use at certain places. I couldn't pay online at M&S using it.
Regards

You usually find that if you can't use it online, if you phone the company up you can do it that way. Daughter was able to do her Direct Line Insurance over the phone with an electron.

I have tried using it in person, over the phone and online and it is being declined. Tesco have accepted it in person, but another business declined it in person and I have tried today to pay my car insurance with it over the phone and it is declined again!! I'm not a happy camper and if I'd known I would never have taken it out. Does anyone have any suggestions for another bank I could try to change to?

my wife has never had hers declined anywhere yet except at the self service fuel pumps.
she uses it at tesco's asda,even pays council tax online with it.
what kind of places are being a pain?

Hi, I had been using mine with no problems since August.

However, this week I had problems with it.

I used it on Argos online and it worked fine, but then I was making another transaction on the same website later the same day, and it declined. I phoned Coop and they could not see any reason for it being declined.

I have not used it since, so I don't know if it will work elsewhere or not.

I have used mine for 9 months or so as Sainsburys self serve tills with no problems, but in the last week or so it declines as soon as I put it in the machine before even enetering the pin !

National Rail never used to take it, but they do now, only other problem I had was pay-at-pump petrol. Otherwise very happy with it for the last almost two years.

The Co-op changed it a while ago from an Electron to a Visa Debit but it relies on retailers and banks etc., updating their systems. Here is the list of prefixes (i.e. the STARTING digits of the card number) used by the Co-op:

4508 75 - Co-operative Bank Visa Debit Card (formerly Visa Electron) NOTE this is from the website I got this list from, it's not my comment about the Electron
4550 25 - Cooperative Bank (UK) - Visa
4552 - Cooperative Bank (UK)
4555 - Cooperative Bank Platinum VISA (UK)
4988 24 - Smile (The Co-operative Bank) Visa debit card (UK)
633174 - Co-operative membership card

Having read some of these posts though I do wonder if something has suddenly changed...

We have had a hotel booked for months and we tried to pay using it at the hotel reception and it was declined, both my husbands and my card. It was really embarrassing. I phone Coop and they said it wasn't declined from their end. I then ordered groceries online with Tesco and the order never arrived because card again was declined...Coop say they didn't decline it. I then tried to pay my car insurance over the phone today and it was declined AGAIN!! I phoned the Coop and the lady got a bit stroppy with me, saying that it was not declined by themselves and that if the business did not accept that particular card then that is their problem. I summarised what has been happening over the past week but she didn't want to know and said it was not a problem from their end. It is a big headache for me as I went to a lot of bother to get our wages paid into the new account as well as all direct debits cancelled and set up for new account and now it looks like I'm going to have to do it all over again arghhh!!!!!!! Can anyone suggest another basic bank account that we might be accepted for?

It does sound as though there is something going on.

Since Co-op changed to Visa Debit from Electron it has been down to the retailers to update their systems to accept the card as Visa Debit, and some have been slow to do that.

Regarding a new account, Santander, A & L (part of Santander) and Northern Rock all offer basic accounts.

I have to admit, had no problem personally with Cashminder so far - only at self service pumps like back on track

Me too, been using for a year with no problems like this.

At the beginning it didnt work in pay at pump but this is now resolved at Tesco, I think Shell still dont take it but all the others seem fine.

My card starts 450875...

Could you not push them for a replacement card, just incase it is something odd with this card/config.

Hi I'm new to all this,so forgive me if i'm wrong. we've got a basic bank account with CO-OP, used it to pay in Asda and 1 or 2 other shops ok.

I heard of a card you can put money onto(top up) like a debit card,you can only use what's on the card - it's not a credit card.

Do any of you "more experienced" guy's reading know about this? it might help.

Cashplus? Pre-pay Mastercard