The message comes up "Call Auth Centre" on the card machine. I've had this happen before, but I've had to wait embarassingly in the queue at a shop which is a pain. Can I call Visa directly or do I have to keep trying to use it in shops and find a merchant that knows wtf is going on?

They're onto you – RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!

Edit: I'd just phone the card issuer personally 🙂

I had this happen the other week to me in TK Makk, oddly they had to call for authorisation for the customer in front of me as well?? So is it a customer issue or a merchant issue?

Can be random, can be because they've picked up strange activity on your card. Best to give them a call, they may have picked up some fraudulent activity on it and they are getting pretty good these days.

Just phoned Barclays, they said everything was fine. But that was the phone banking guy. I wonder if it's worth calling the fraud prevention people… you'd think though that they'd have an integrated system…

It is undoubtedly because I paid off a big sum from my credit card the other day.

If it's fraud prevention, your card would have been stopped already

True.. but my bank thought it was fine.. bah…

Parents get this every time the come south of the border….P**S's my dad off everytime!!!! does not happen when in KL or spain, very strange

Like I say I've had it before when travelling. But it's sorted now… original phone banking guy thought everything was fine but I called the fraud prevention person and there was apparently a block on it caused by some error with Verified by Visa… sorted now anyway.

Its just extra security to verify its you. Couple of things it can be down to, the machine has been used for fraud quite abit, you've done loads of transactions that day or it could just be at random.

All they is just ring a company then it gets relayed through to your bank.