Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as Tesco Bank · DRN-6048579

The complaint Mr C complains that Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as “Tesco Bank” placed a security block on his credit card account, causing transactions to fail and resulting in causing him distress and convenience when attempting to have the block removed. What happened I won’t repeat all the facts here, as those aren’t in dispute. I have reviewed the entire file and if I don’t comment on something, it isn’t because I haven’t seen it - it’s that I haven’t deemed it relevant. I mean no discourtesy by this, it’s merely to reflect the informal nature of our service. Also, whilst I appreciate Mr C’s wife is an additional cardholder and that she has also been involved in these matters, for ease, I’ve referred to Mr C throughout as he is the account holder. Tesco Bank placed a security block on Mr C’s credit card account on 13 September 2025, as it says its fraud monitoring system identified unusual activity on the credit card. Tesco Bank sent a text message to Mr C about the unusual activity on 13 September 2025 and attempted to call Mr C twice on 14 September, leaving a voice message following one of those attempted calls. A letter was also sent on 14 September, explaining there had been unusual activity on his credit card and that Mr C needed to phone Tesco Bank. As a result of the block, several of Mr C’s attempted transactions were unsuccessful. On 28 September 2025, the block was removed from the account. Mr C says in attempting to resolve the block on his card, Tesco Bank caused him distress, confusion and anxiety: • During his holiday in September 2025, Mr C said he kept receiving strange calls from a UK number, which he later realised was Tesco Bank’s fraud department. He tried contacting the department ten days later but got the message that his details weren’t recognised. • Tesco Bank applied continuous pressure for weeks and eventually succeeded in blackening part of his holiday. • A complaint Mr C tried to send from his phone was later traced as having been sent wrongly, for reasons unknown to him. • Tesco Bank sent an email to him on 17 September 2025, but he was unable to reply to it. • Mr C called Tesco Bank but was asked to call back the next day as the relevant team had left for the day. • On 27 September, further attempted transactions were blocked when Mr C attempted to use the card to pay for council tax and groceries. • When contacting Tesco Bank, Mr C said his memorable number had been changed to something unknown. So, Tesco Bank sent him a temporary passcode, but he still

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wasn’t able to log in or change his security number. Mr C says he went round in circles on this and eventually managed to change his details to the original ones and logged in successfully. Tesco Bank’s portal also didn’t want Mr C to use the browser, OPERA. • Overall, Mr C has spent around 15 hours trying to contact various departments and writing emails as well as complaining. So far, Mr C hadn’t had any responses to the emails or otherwise – and the only response was the blocking of Mr C’s wife’s credit card which was an additional inconvenience. To put things right, Mr C says although he cannot see how Tesco Bank can make up for the lost enjoyment of their holidays, he believes it should reimburse part of their holiday cost and compensate for the many hours (around seven), wasted trying to contact Tesco Bank and corresponding with it. Tesco didn’t uphold Mr C’s complaint and, after reviewing matters, neither did our Investigator. Mr C requested an Ombudsman make a final decision on his complaint. Because the parties couldn’t agree, the matter has been passed to me to decide. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. Having done so, whilst I know this will disappoint Mr C, I’m not upholding this complaint – and I’ll explain why. The terms of Mr C’s account allow Tesco Bank to restrict or suspend the account where fraud is suspected. Here, Tesco Bank has explained it identified unusual activity on Mr C’s account and subsequently placed a block on the account. Tesco has a responsibility to protect both itself and its customers’ accounts from fraud and in the circumstances of this case, I don’t find its actions unreasonable here. Much like our Investigator, I’m also satisfied that Tesco Bank took reasonable steps to inform Mr C about the block and to explain what he needed to do in order to sort the issue out. It sent a text message on the same day the block was applied, followed by two call attempts and a voice mail the following day and then sent a letter in the post, asking Mr C to call its fraud department. I can appreciate having to deal with this matter may have been particularly inconvenient for Mr C, given he was on holiday abroad. But I don’t think Tesco Bank made an error when placing the block on his account and given the situation, it had little choice but to contact Mr C to notify him about the potential unusual activity it had identified on his account. So, I don’t think Tesco Bank made an error when contacting Mr C about the matter, even if he was on holiday at the time. I understand that Mr C feels his memorable number had been changed to something unknown when he attempted to use it during the call with Tesco Bank on 21 September 2025 and that he later had difficulties setting up his permanent security number online using the OPERA browser. Looking at Tesco Bank’s system notes, it seems Mr C’s security number had been locked due to incorrect digits being entered. As a result, the agent Mr C spoke to on the phone issued a Temporary Security Number (TSN). I can’t see any evidence that Tesco Bank was responsible for any issues with Mr C’s security number and I’m satisfied, by creating a TSN, that the agent provided a way forward

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for Mr C to resolve the issue. In addition, Tesco Bank apologised for any issues Mr C had with setting up his permanent security number using the OPERA browser, agreed that it would provide feedback on the matter, and I can see Mr C was able to resolve the issue. In the circumstances, I’m not necessarily persuaded the browser issues Mr C had, were a result of something Tesco Bank did wrong, but in any event, I wouldn’t be inclined to tell Tesco Bank to compensate Mr C for this matter given the low-level of inconvenience it would have likely involved. I also don’t find it unreasonable that, during this call, Mr C was asked to call back the next day, once the fraud department was open. It’s reasonable that the fraud department would need to deal with the matter. Given Mr C didn’t call back until some days later, I don’t find that any delays in removing the block, were as a result of something Tesco Bank did wrong. I’m sorry to hear that this issue has caused Mr C distress and inconvenience. I know Mr C feels that Tesco Bank unfairly placed the blame with him for what happened. I don’t seek to do that, but having reviewed matters, it isn’t clear to me why Mr C didn’t simply call the fraud department, as instructed, some time before he did. It may have been because he was abroad – he has mentioned call costs. But I don’t find it unreasonable that Tesco Bank required Mr C to speak specifically to its fraud department – and to do so over the phone as opposed to email or via some other non-speaking method of communication. After all, in the circumstances, Tesco Bank would reasonably want to ensure they were speaking to Mr C and not to a fraudster. For the reasons explained, I’m not upholding this complaint, and I won’t be asking Tesco Bank to do anything to put things right for Mr C. My final decision My final decision is that I don’t uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr C to accept or reject my decision before 27 April 2026. Sophie Kyprianou Ombudsman

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