Sky reversing recent 3V Virtual Visa card payments

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A quick heads up that Sky appears to be reversing payments that were made on 3V Virtual Visa cards in recent days.

As I reported last week, 3V suddenly blocked their cards from being used for paying bills or into bank accounts. Sky appeared to have slipped through, though, even though payments to Virgin Media were blocked. Some people used up their 3V supply by pre-paying their Sky account.

3V card

If you did this, take a look at your Sky account. You may find that your payments have been reversed. They will take a day or so to be sent back to 3V, but in theory your online 3V account will show those cards credited back with the £25 payments at some point.

This is, obviously, incredibly frustrating for people who have 3V cards to use up. Current advice seems to be a) try your council tax then, if that fails, b) try paying your utility provider. If that fails, try c) buying a pile of Amazon gift certificates to cover a few months of Amazon purchases.

After that, you may find it easier to d) pay the £1.70 to merge cards together, and then pay the £3.50 fee to empty out the combined card into your bank account.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

CV says:

20 Dec20 December 09:10

Yup, payments made on 13 Dec were revered on 18th Dec, although balance isn’t back on the 3V cards as yet.
Mr Bridge says:

20 Dec20 December 09:12

I think, that according to 3v t+cs, and advertising that raphael’s are in breach themselves

‘use anywhere on line where visa is accepted’

‘Merchant” means a supplier of goods and/or services, who is authorised to display the Visa [trade mark/brand name] and who supplies such goods and/or services through a website, through mail order or over the telephone.’

‘It may be used only for purchasing goods and/or services from Merchants via the
internet, over the phone or through mail order.’

so YOU CAN purchase services according to the T+C’S, So sky and virgin media, should be a legitimate use of these cards.
- Mr Bridge says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 09:21
  
  sky have reversed £100 into my account, so I am going to challenge this!
  - Mr Bridge says:
    
    20 Dec20 December 09:23
    
    sky say:
    Me: hi, i made 4 payments of £25 on 13/12/13 and there is a payment reversal on 18/12/13, why is this please
    Umair: Thanks, you’re chatting with Umair and I can certainly help you with your query.
    Umair:, payment is reversed because the Direct Debit is failed or your payment didn’t went through successfully.
    I shall now ask 3v.
  - Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    
    20 Dec20 December 09:23
    
    If Sky are actioning the reversal then you’ve got no grounds for complaint with 3V
    - Mr Bridge says:
      
      20 Dec20 December 09:46
      
      sky only revered because the payment failed…ie 3v refused, even though they authorised.
- Mrtibbs1999 says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 07:21
  
  Go to the ombudsman. You’ll waste hours of your life and eventually get a few pence per card if you’re successful. But if being rights the aim, you’ll be a winner!
What's the Point says:

20 Dec20 December 09:19

Do you get notified by 3V if a transaction is reversed?
Or have you got to look through all the cards on the 3V account to check if they have any balance on them?
- TimS says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 09:28
  
  I had no notification either from Sky or 3v.
  
  I only noticed as i was checking my Sky account for something else and noticed the reversals!
- Dev says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 10:38
  
  Very annoyingly my 3v account does not show the latest activated numbers. Anyone else have this issue?
  - Singing Dwarf says:
    
    20 Dec20 December 10:58
    
    Yes, I do.
Toddy says:

20 Dec20 December 09:41

8x£25 payments made on the13th Dec to Sky have been reversed.
jane says:

20 Dec20 December 10:11

4 x £25 paid on the 14th reversed on the 18th here too – very annoying.
Mark says:

20 Dec20 December 10:24

Tesco £5 back on £10 is available (if you are lucky) to add to card once logged in.

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/
- Singing Dwarf says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 11:09
  
  How/where does the offer appear please?
  I cannot see anything when I log in – is there a specific page to go to?
  - Singing Dwarf says:
    
    20 Dec20 December 11:10
    
    Sorry I take that back – I was on a supplementary card page!
    - Mark says:
      
      20 Dec20 December 11:17
      
      I’ve registered the cards in my name for the offer, and also my wife’s Gold Charge Card. That only applies to the main card holder, not supplementary cards. The latter is explicitly excluded when registering the main card, and as you’ve found it doesn’t seem to be possible to register supplementary cards in their own right (as it is with the Foursquare offers).
      
      Does anyone know any way around this, or is it simply not possible to register supplementary cards for American Express “My Offers”?
      - pazza2000 says:
        
        20 Dec20 December 11:38
        
        How quick is the statement credit to post on these ‘load to card’ offers?
    - pazza2000 says:
      
      20 Dec20 December 11:36
      
      It seems they can exclude supplementary cards via this ‘load to card’ route vs other promotions such as 4S and and small shops.
- Polly says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 12:41
  
  Can’t find the registration page anywhere! Any ideas? Tnx
  - Mark says:
    
    20 Dec20 December 16:25
    
    Look on the right hand side of the main account page when logged in. As noted you need to be looking at a card where you are the main, not supplementary cardholder. You’ll see it cycling through logos for the various offers, including Tesco.
    - Polly says:
      
      20 Dec20 December 19:52
      
      Thanks, got it…
Stu says:

20 Dec20 December 11:32

I believe this is incorrect. Wirral Borough Council uses Santander (and is listed on the link) but has been rejecting ever since 3V made their changes.

While 3V have always blocked ‘Financial Services’, they have begun blocking ‘Government Services’ as that’s what NS&I incorrectly categorise themselves as.
Singing Dwarf says:

20 Dec20 December 11:32

I queried with 3V yesterday why payments to my local council for goods and services such as school dinners and refuse collection were being refused by 3V. This appeared to be in contravention of their own terms and conditions.

I was told that VISA Merchant Category Code 9399 had recently been added to the blocked list of transaction codes, because ‘all financial services related institutions are blocked’ by the 3V product, but some financial services merchants are incorrectly registered under the 9399 code. They were therefore being allowed through, unblocked. I wonder who they could be referring to…?

3V have now taken ‘corrective’ action to block all merchants using the 9399 code.

I have replied, stating that I believe 3V to be in breach of their own terms and conditions by now blocking this code – which is described as ‘Government Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)’ in VISA literature – but I have not received a reply to date.
- Mr Bridge says:
  
  20 Dec20 December 12:01
  
  i await their response to you with interest, and agree with you that services ordered over the internet, or telephone should be included under 3v t+c’s.
  If you have quoted from a 3v response, they are quoting a term that is not within their terms and conditions.
  There is nothing in the t+cs that say you cant purchase financial services, NSandI have beeen blocked from taking cardholder not p[resent transactions.
  
  Sky does not provide financial services, so 3v are making up t+cs, they can do this but they should notify all account holders of the change, and of course change their website
  - Singing Dwarf says:
    
    31 Dec31 December 08:53
    
    The response from 3V in relation to why my council us now bing blocked is:
    
    “I would like to refer our Terms & Conditions clause 15.1.c which allows us to make change of which merchants can be blocked.
    
    MCC code 9399 which your merchant is configured under was overlooked because some financial services merchants were incorrectly configured under this code and so were not blocked. This has now been blocked in line with our policy.
    
    We understand that this causes a problem with the merchant you want to transact with, but unfortunately this cannot be changed.
    
    I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”