Unable to report lost Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

[Alastair]

I’m currently in Switzerland and lost my credit cards during a train journey here today. I was easily able to report the loss of my Curve and BA Amex cards and order new cards through their apps. However, I haven’t been able to report the loss of my Barclaycard.

There is an option to report a lost card in the Barclaycard app but that simply results in a message saying that I have to phone to report the card lost. And when phoning the number given and choosing the option to report a card lost or stolen, i get a recorded message saying that wait times are over an hour and suggesting that I might prefer to phone another time!

I’d really rather report the card lost now but don’t want a Switzerland to UK phone call lasting over an hour. Any suggestions?

[Andrew.]

Well, the process is to make the call.

If you can’t (or won’t) do that and have’t done it already, go into the “Cards” section of the App and lock down the spending as much as you can.

Eg reduce the contactless to £5, switch off all the spending permissions including overseas spending.

[Alastair]

Thanks Andrew but I can’t find those options in the Barclays app. From a Google search it appears that they might only be available for Barclays debit cards not Barclaycard credit cards?

I have a UK SIM card which gives free calls within the EU and from the EU to the UK but calls from Switzerland to the UK are £1.49 a minute. I also have a Swiss SIM card which gives cheap calls within Switzerland but calls to the UK are CHF 1.10 a minute. So I ‘could’ make the call but it might well cost over £100. I have an inactive Skype account that I could try to get working and then spend the early hours of the morning trying to get through to Barclaycard (it’s after midnight here) but surely reporting a lost card shouldn’t be so difficult.

[memesweeper]

I called to report my Hilton B’card stolen today. Call answered in under 2 minutes and details confirmed in under 10.

I might have to sign a form sent to my house this week.

If you think this process is poor try reporting a stolen card to Curve. Absolutely hopeless.

[Alastair]

Update – phoned again this morning and got through within a few minutes. The need to wait over 60 mins on hold to report a lost or stolen card is presumably an evening / weekend issue.