• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

I intreague cross country trains

Status
Not open for further replies.

LondonJohn

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Messages
285
Location
London
Today I received an email from Cross Country trains saying that I intreagued them as I had asked for updates but had not booked a ticket.

They have given me an invite only 25% discount with the following T&C

Terms & conditions / Privacy policy / Unsubscribe

XC Trains Limited, registered in England & Wales (Company number 04402048). Registered office: Admiral Way, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland SR3 3XP.

Terms and conditions apply. Advance fares are subject to availability.

*The 25% discount is available for CrossCountry Advance tickets only which are exclusively for use on CrossCountry trains. The discount is not available against other train company tickets or other fare types. Discounts apply to both Adult and Child fares and are available on both Standard and First Class Advance fares. CrossCountry Advance tickets are subject to availability. Please note that the PIN code shown on this e-mail is only valid for one transaction, but you can buy more than one ticket in that transaction. Bookings with more than one CrossCountry Advance ticket will generate a 25% discount per ticket. The PIN code is only valid for bookings made before 18 October 2011, for travel between 12 September and 18 December 2011. PIN codes can only be issued once. CrossCountry will not take responsibility for any lost or deleted PIN codes – replacements cannot be issued. Promotional tickets are not available as e-Tickets. The CrossCountry Advance tickets will only be valid on the CrossCountry network – the tickets will not be accepted by other train operators. For details of the CrossCountry network, please visit: www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk. The 'CrossCountry & Connections' Advance tickets are not valid in conjunction with this promotion, even if the journey is made solely on CrossCountry trains. If part of your journey is with another operator then you must buy a ticket for that part of the route. The National Rail Conditions of Carriage apply for travel on all CrossCountry trains. CrossCountry reserves the right to withdraw this offer or amend these Terms and Conditions at any time without notice. The cash redemption value of this voucher is 0.001p.

Anybody else received this offer.

There are two reasons as to why I don't use them that much, firstly I have moved away from Leamington Spa so no longer travel between there and Southampton.

But secondly, when I did use them to book 6 journeys costing around £150 they took an authorisation for the amount of the fare plus £1 to verify the address but put the transactions through individually for the fare amounts. This in turn meant that the authorisitation for £150 stayed on my account preventing me from using this money for 10 days AND my card being blocked for suspected fraudulent activities after multiple transactions seconds apart at the same remote retailer. My bank blamed XC and XC blamed my bank.

I am not likely to be able to take this up as I don't do any wholly cross country train journeys now. Is there anything against someone else using it? (from the T&C I can see it is only one use). If not the first person to DM me can have the code.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

John @ home

Established Member
Joined
1 Mar 2008
Messages
5,148
If this had happened to me, I would write to XC's MD seeking his written asssurance that these practices would cease forthwith, failing which I would pursue through the press - probably the financial advice columns of the quality Sundays.

Was the £1 address verification in accordance with the t&c's you agreed to?
 
Last edited:

mickey

Member
Joined
11 Mar 2010
Messages
564
I got this email too despite never using their website. I think it's because VT sold them my details when they lost the XC franchise - at the time I had Traveller and often used XC routes with my free tickets. I seem to remember their telling me they were going to pass my details over but by the time I got the letter it was too late to object.

I may use the voucher, but probably won't.
 

BigVince76

Member
Joined
13 Apr 2010
Messages
107
Oooo if anyone gets one of these codes and has no use for it I would be very happy to take of their hands, please send me a PM if you can!
 

island

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
15,982
Location
0036
All Trainline-powered sites will put through multiple transactions for multiple journeys booked at once. Use a WebTIS site instead. Don't know where the question of authorizing for the total cost plus £1 to verify address came in, because (a) that's against card scheme rules, and (b) you can pass an address to the address verification system without authorizing any sum at all.
 

LondonJohn

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Messages
285
Location
London
If this had happened to me, I would write to XC's MD seeking his written asssurance that these practices would cease forthwith, failing which I would pursue through the press - probably the financial advice columns of the quality Sundays.

Was the £1 address verification in accordance with the t&c's you agreed to?

Pretty much so as CNP (Customer Not Present) transactions have to have an element of security to them, especially as good are not always delivered to the customer's address (eg ticket picked up at machine).

To comply with this, most online retailers that take cards subscribe to Verified by Visa or Mastercard Secure when you put your details in here it does a dummy authorisation for £1 to check that your details are correct. If you don't enter these details your bank won't authorisation the transaction.

I suspect that my bank was correct in advising me that XC were to blame for this as they (my bank) would not necesarrily know that 6 individual transaction totalls would be the same as one combined total and if they cancelled the larger authorisation and another transaction went through for this amount and the funds weren't there they would have a customer with an unauthorised overdrawn. They also advised me that 6 transactions within a couple of minutes of each other was common practice by fraudsters to check and see if cards were valid.
 

island

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
15,982
Location
0036
To comply with this, most online retailers that take cards subscribe to Verified by Visa or Mastercard Secure when you put your details in here it does a dummy authorisation for £1 to check that your details are correct. If you don't enter these details your bank won't authorisation the transaction.

Sorry, no it doesn't! Whoever told you that made it up out of whole cloth.
 

mickey

Member
Joined
11 Mar 2010
Messages
564
Sorry, no it doesn't! Whoever told you that made it up out of whole cloth.
Using £1 as pre-authorisation is common among companies that take distance payments. Doing it six times is new to me but doesn't really surprise me.

MSSecureCode/VbV are an additional security check introduced by the banking/card industry in response to retailers' demands to reduce fraud. However, it's the retailer itself who chooses whether to demand it and how to operate it - some will decline all refused transactions, while some allow one payment by people who don't want to register with a message that they must do so before their next purchase. My bank doesn't participate in the scheme but I can still buy train tickets - it's just quicker for me than most people!
 

island

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
15,982
Location
0036
Using £1 as pre-authorisation is common among companies that take distance payments. Doing it six times is new to me but doesn't really surprise me.
It's also against card scheme rules.

MSSecureCode/VbV are an additional security check introduced by the banking/card industry in response to retailers' demands to reduce fraud. However, it's the retailer itself who chooses whether to demand it and how to operate it - some will decline all refused transactions, while some allow one payment by people who don't want to register with a message that they must do so before their next purchase. My bank doesn't participate in the scheme but I can still buy train tickets - it's just quicker for me than most people!
Almost but not quite. The retailer decides whether to operate MCSC/VbV, and if it does, it gains extra protection against chargebacks (where the customer denies participating in the transaction). The card issuer (not the retailer) will determine how long a customer can go without registering. And if the customer enters a wrong password or otherwise fails MCSC/VbV, the retailer still has the option to proceed with the transaction.

And for those who dislike MCSC/VbV, may I recommend American Express? :)
 

mickey

Member
Joined
11 Mar 2010
Messages
564
Almost but not quite. The retailer decides whether to operate MCSC/VbV, and if it does, it gains extra protection against chargebacks (where the customer denies participating in the transaction). The card issuer (not the retailer) will determine how long a customer can go without registering. And if the customer enters a wrong password or otherwise fails MCSC/VbV, the retailer still has the option to proceed with the transaction
Can the retailer set variable conditions for using it? Say, anything above £20 yes, below no?
 

island

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
15,982
Location
0036
That I'm not sure of. I think they can, although I've not encountered a site which does.
 

wintonian

Established Member
Joined
15 Jan 2010
Messages
4,889
Location
Hampshire
It's also against card scheme rules.


Almost but not quite. The retailer decides whether to operate MCSC/VbV, and if it does, it gains extra protection against chargebacks (where the customer denies participating in the transaction). The card issuer (not the retailer) will determine how long a customer can go without registering. And if the customer enters a wrong password or otherwise fails MCSC/VbV, the retailer still has the option to proceed with the transaction.

And for those who dislike MCSC/VbV, may I recommend American Express? :)

Once registerd with MCSC/VbV can you unregister if you want to?
 

LondonJohn

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Messages
285
Location
London
Using £1 as pre-authorisation is common among companies that take distance payments. Doing it six times is new to me but doesn't really surprise me.

MSSecureCode/VbV are an additional security check introduced by the banking/card industry in response to retailers' demands to reduce fraud. However, it's the retailer itself who chooses whether to demand it and how to operate it - some will decline all refused transactions, while some allow one payment by people who don't want to register with a message that they must do so before their next purchase. My bank doesn't participate in the scheme but I can still buy train tickets - it's just quicker for me than most people!

They didn't do 6 address verifications.

I was led to believe that if retailers did CNP transactions without additional security checks they would be charged back on pretty much all disputed transactions. This is according to my sister who operates a web based business.

I believe once you are in the scheme you can't get out of it as a cardholder
 

tony_mac

Established Member
Joined
25 Feb 2009
Messages
3,626
Location
Liverpool
it can be a nuisance. I have, more than once, failed to make a purchase because whatever (mobile) browser I was using could deal with everything except the verified by visa page.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top