Late last night, I was trying to log on to the website for a credit card that I use, that’s branded as belonging to a hotel chain but actually provided by Barclaycard*.  After going through the usual security theatre to log on, the system kept telling me that it was unable to access my account:

“Unexpected error
Sorry, an unexpected error has occurred and we can’t continue servicing your account online at this time.”

I’ve seen this before so I decided to try another browser, then another PC, then a Mac, then yet another PC – all to no avail.

The fact that I tried so many machines (some of which I wouldn’t have used before to access the site) suggests that the problem is not to do with cookies but I eventually managed to access the site using Internet Explorer’s InPrivate browsing mode (Ctrl+Shift+P – some other browsers have similar functionality).

So, if you’re having problems accessing a Barclaycard-powered site, InPrivate browsing might be the answer.

Strangely, I tried again this morning, from one of the PCs that didn’t work last night and everything worked as it should… bizarre!

*Barclaycard’s own cards appear to use a different system.