h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No don't worry; not this site

I'm fairly sure this is just coincidence but can anyone think of a reason why over the past few weeks I am finding more and more sites that won't accept my login, or even in one case a credit card payment ?

In the case of the credit card payment, I have tried over a number of weeks using different cards (including one I've always used), different browsers, different OS and even a different IP address by using my phone as a hotspot. Their customer service is no help and says everything working normally at their end.

In the case of the logins, one was a music streaming site and one (just today) is New Scientist. It keep coming up with a 'bad response' error message.

I use a password manager so the passwords and usernames are OK. Is it just likely to be a coincidence and there are separate issues with each site, or can anyone think of a reason that could be affecting multiple sites ?

Hmmm... it might behoove you to get a credit report. I use Credit Karma's free credit report service in the US.

It could just be a technical issue, but it's always a good idea these days to periodically check your credit report and score. Just be sure to use a reputable and free service.

I've never used a password manager program/software..... Might it be that this software itself, suddenly isn't working with websites, either due to it having updated, and broken something, or the brousers all having updated, but the password software hasn't and so no longer works with them? just an idea

Oh, and regards teh credcard, the only time I ever had credit card refused, was online, where I'd made 'unusual looking transactions', in a short period of time, and it was blocked automatically by the credit card company, as they feared the 'patturn of transactions' looked like illegal use, I.E., didn't fit with my normal patturn of use; I was buying a load of differnt PC componants, from a few differnt sites, and having spent ages working out which componants to buy, I of course, then rapidly spent a lot of money across the differnt sites, all within a few minutes, to buy all the componants at once ...

The only time my credit card was ever refused was in a store where the sales clerk actually looked at it, and noticed that I hadn't signed it.

It may be that the servers consider your browser insufficiently secure if it is particularly old.

Have you tried a different browser?

Do you have direct wired access to the Internet or are you borrowing wifi?

There have been fairly major issues with a web (security?) service called Cloudflare recently. Perhaps this is what's up and is nothing to do with you. Since you did the right thing and called customer services there's clearly no issue with your actual credit status.

Hi, thanks for the responses.

In the case of the credit card; not only have I tried different browsers but also different operating systems- windows 10 and Linix Mint, as well as connecting through my phone's hotspot, just in case my IP address had been blacklisted for some reason

I also have been trying 3 different cards - 2 credit card and 1 debit. As the business makes all its income online and i have been having this issue for around 3 weeks, I'm assuming they would've fixed any issues at their and their cust service person was not aware of any issues but was no help beyond that.

New Scientist logs in now, so they must've had login issues all day yesterday.

Credit-check-wise- well possibly worth checking, but the cards all work elsewhere.

When you're checking your credit report you also want to specifically make sure no one has opened up new accounts or taken out loans using your information. Also check your card account statements for any unauthorized purchases. That would indicate if someone has hacked or accessed your accounts.

This is just being reasonably paranoid, but anytime something weird is going on with your credit it doesn't hurt to check these things. ID theft can make your life miserable.