Stranded abroad with no money

[661-Pete]

This is about my son, and serves as a warning and appeal for advice: both.
He's on a (non-cycling) extended stay in Ukraine, and was relying on his debit card to draw funds. After several weeks his card suddenly stopped working in the ATMs with some message like 'card blocked' or whatever. He had some reserves of other currency including US$ and Euros, but he'd used most of them up. Point is, he had no other means of drawing cash from his account or any other source.

Apparently the bank had got suspicious of all the withdrawals in Ukraine, and suddenly cut off the card without warning and without getting in touch with him. It seems he should have notified the bank that he was going to be abroad for two months.

After a lot of hassle including protracted phone calls to the bank (luckily he got the use of a Skype phone after his mobile ran out) they finally agreed that it was a mistake and eventually managed to turn the card on again. Panic over! In the meantime Mrs P had asked at her (different) bank whether she could transfer funds for him to pick up at a local bank in Kiev. No can do, apparently. We were almost ready to tell him - go to the Consulate, and/or book him an early flight home. But luckily that won't be necessary, now. (*phew*).

Anyone else had anything similar happen to them?

 

[ianrauk]

yes happened to me when I was on business Stateside a few years ago. I now forewarn my bank every time I plan to use my cards abroad.

 

[TheDoctor]

Happened to me.
The bank tried to phone me to warn me that my card was being used in Delhi.
I didn't get the message until I got back from Delhi...

 

[BigEvo]

Happened to me last week in the states. Managed to make a few purchases before it stopped working. Has happened before to me and the best thing to do is let the bank know you will be using it abroad or at least give them your mobile number as they will call you to check that it is you making the transactions.

Its good to know they are watching and taking prompt action.

 

[661-Pete]

Good advice - with hindsight. But now I seem to recall, my son did make enquiries at his local branch, before he left, to make sure his card would work in Ukraine in the first place. But maybe he didn't talk to the right people. I think it's the bank's fraud centre who need to know. Best to phone.

Next time, he'll do as we do I hope, and have more than one piece of plastic in his pocket. From different banks preferably.

 

[ianrauk]

And each of those different banks forewarned

Good advice - with hindsight. But now I seem to recall, my son did make enquiries at his local branch, before he left, to make sure his card would work in Ukraine in the first place. But maybe he didn't talk to the right people. I think it's the bank's fraud centre who need to know. Best to phone.

Next time, he'll do as we do I hope, and have more than one piece of plastic in his pocket. From different banks preferably.

 

[HLaB]

Its not happened to me but I was advised to tell my bank when I went to Aus for 4 weeks but I guess that wouldn't have been long enough to trigger any security and I probably didn't make that much card purchases.

 

[swee'pea99]

It's all very well to compliment the banks on their security, but since they cover all losses that aren't down to gross negligence, they're actually only protecting themselves - and what amazes me is that they do so little to forewarn people of this. It's not like overseas travel is weird or even slightly unusual these days. I had this happen to me, and they were quite unapologetic about it, saying I should've let them know I was going. 'Should I?' I asked. 'I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell me, if that's the case?' Ever heard a guy shrug his shoulders while picking out dirt from under his nails....

 

[darkstar]

I actually ran out of money in China, I only took one card and after a month, I returned to Beijing and on the final day had less that £2! Fortunately I had met nice people at the hostel, they bought the drinks on the last night, let me kip on their hostel room floor and paid for my tube ride to the Airport (I was on the same flight as them). Rest ashore I got their UK address and returned the favor! Could have been a difficult situation though.

 

[ELL]

Happened to me in Morocco a couple of years ago but was no big deal. Quick call to the bank and it was all sorted dont see it being a problem. This year I told them I was going to Cuba and had no problem at all.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It used to happen all the time to me. And one thing I found out on the third occasion is that it makes absolutely no difference if you notify your bank as the branch and the people who deal with your account regularly are not the same people who stop cards, and the latter pay no attention to any notes on the account or anything else.

The odd thing is that now I am living overseas permanently, I still have a UK account, and I can still use the card they gave me to access what's left of my old account even though I never even verified the card etc.

I have come to the conclusion that their 'systems' are not very sophisticated.

 

[661-Pete]

It used to happen all the time to me. And one thing I found out on the third occasion is that it makes absolutely no difference if you notify your bank as the branch and the people who deal with your account regularly are not the same people who stop cards, and the latter pay no attention to any notes on the account or anything else.

That may well be the crux of the matter. Who do you phone to notify? Evidently just telling your own branch is no use at all.

What would be really useful, for those who bank online, would be a way to automatically notify your bank by this means. Some sort of box in which you can send a message. Securely of course: E-mail would be risky! Does any bank have this? Mine doesn't.

 

[slowmotion]

661-Pete, I feel your pain. This stuff has happened to me a few times. Marrakesh, San Francisco and France, but the most "interesting" event was in Italy about five years ago. On the first morning of the holiday, I set out alone in the hire car to do a massive supermarket shop for the three families with which we were sharing a house. The list of stuff to buy was quite comprehensive. After forty five minutes of retail therapy (not), I arrived at the check-out with a groaning trolley and presented a credit card. Blocked. I tried another. Blocked. I left the trolley and went to find a cash machine. The cash card was blocked too. I had no way of paying, so I had to abort the mission and drive fifteen miles back to the house and spend an unhappy half hour on the phone attempting to persuade my bank that I was, errrh, actually, me. Yes, the musak while I was "held in a queue and your call is important to us" (FFS, who comes up with that drivel!) did not go down too well . One of the security questions was the name of the company to which I last wrote a cheque. Given that I probably write two cheques each year, that was a bit of a poser. It got sorted eventually, and I was in holiday mood, so quickly forgot.

I now ring up the bank a couple of days before I go abroad, and tell them my dates and the places I am likely to be. I think their blocking software is pretty much automatic however. It does no harm to let them know, anyway.

Best wishes travellers....

 

[MacB]

it doesn't have to be extended use, I got it after a weekend in Budapest, bank claimed they'd tried to contact me but first I knew about it was when my card was refused at cash machine in UK the following weekend. This was a Saturday and gave up trying to sort after nearly an hour on the phone. Was sorted fairly quickly on the Monday.

 

[slowmotion]

it doesn't have to be extended use, I got it after a weekend in Budapest, bank claimed they'd tried to contact me but first I knew about it was when my card was refused at cash machine in UK the following weekend. This was a Saturday and gave up trying to sort after nearly an hour on the phone. Was sorted fairly quickly on the Monday.

Yes, "extended use" may be a reasonable excuse for blocking, but the whole ghastly process trips in a lot sooner than that. Some spotty geek has written a totally flawed algorithm for "unusual patterns of expenditure" that is, perhaps, a little simplistic. Bastard!