Stranded abroad with no money

[Riverman]

Not done much travelling so haven't had the misfortune to encounter this problem.

Although Barclaycard invest in some rather dubious activities like arms sales, they do have quite a useful policy in regards to this.
http://www.prnewswir...elease?id=59889

edit: ah it seems they no longer offer the 'international rescue' service.

 

[snorri]

There is no point in just telling your bank, you must tell the credit/debit card company using the number on the back of the card. I got caught out once, and now always phone to advise of any travel plans likely to exceed a few days, and have had no problems.
I still carry several cards from different companies , just in case.

 

[slowmotion]

There is no point in just telling your bank, you must tell the credit/debit card company using the number on the back of the card. I got caught out once, and now always phone to advise of any travel plans likely to exceed a few days, and have had no problems.
I still carry several cards from different companies , just in case.

Good point. BTW, if you try to tell BarclayCard of your arrangements over the phone, be prepared to reach your own funeral before getting through on the "Bangalore Drainpipe".
UK call centres have a lot going for them. You can hear what they say. Hey! they answer the phone too.

 

[yorkshiregoth]

Happens everytime I go to Egypt. Despite forewarning them and despite it being a regular normal thing for me to do. Gets sorted after one phone call from Cairo though.

 

[PBancroft]

I think the other way to look at it would be to wonder what would happen if someone cloned your card (along with many other people's), and then buggered off to Ukraine to cash them. Let's assume that, coincidentally, you were out of town on business so can't pick up your messages. I reckon you'd be pretty pleased that they stopped your card without checking first. Better be safe and all that.

That said, I've had my card stopped once and it was damned annoying. "Unusual activity" was buying something on iTunes. I had to call in at a branch because I couldn't remember my telephone PIN (never used the system) and the bank had to send out a new card, they couldn't revalidate the old one. Took about a week to sort out in the end.

 

[Stephenite]

A couple of years ago I received a phone call from the bank asking me if i was in spain! 'I wish i was' i replied. Turns out my card had been skimmed and i was financing someones holiday!

The bank had the good grace to talk to me before taking action in this case.

 

[661-Pete]

Seems like my lad's in good company!

Of course, it used to be worse. When I was a teenager, there were no bits of plastic, you either took traveller's cheques or bought foreign cash in advance. And there was a £50 travel limit (equivalent to say £500 in today's money). For everything. All travel in that year. If you over-spent, tough. Queue up on the doorstep of the nearest Consulate and have your passport confiscated. A few countries were exempt, the rather dubious 'Sterling Area' (I think it consisted of those countries which still had the Queen's head on their money). I think this limit was the brainchild of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, an attempt to prop up the ailing pound. It failed.

 

[Globalti]

It happened to us in France a couple of weeks ago. "Unusual pattern of spending" was the reason but actually we didn't notice the stop until I tried to withdraw cash the following week.

Last year I was paying a very big hotel bill in Lagos with my company debit card and within two minutes of putting it through my mobile rang; it was the bank checking that the charge was genuine. Pretty impressive.

Wish the bank had been so on the ball about 8 years ago when we used our card to pay the bill at an Indian restaurant in Holcombe Brook, near Bury. We stupidly allowed it out of our sight for a few minutes and some days later, on Christmas Eve, discovered that a Mrs Baig had gone on the rampage with a clone of our card spending £1700 on saris, Indian sweets, petrol, ASDA, the lot, 53 different transactions in total.

 

[User169]

Never had any trouble outside of the UK. The only time the bank rang me to check on "unusual activity" followed a couple of purchases in Berry Bros. Cheeky blighters.

 

[Dan B]

I think the other way to look at it would be to wonder what would happen if someone cloned your card (along with many other people's), and then buggered off to Ukraine to cash them. Let's assume that, coincidentally, you were out of town on business so can't pick up your messages. I reckon you'd be pretty pleased that they stopped your card without checking first

To be honest, no. If someone clones my card then the bank is liable, not me - I'm not going to be out of pocket. If they weren't allowed to stop cards on a whim, they might actually develop some less stupid fraud checking rules and systems and we'd all win.

Think about it, why do the fraudsters need to go abroad anyway? Because UK merchants by and large already have pretty good fraud checking in place - so we know it's possible.

 

[TVC]

Good point. BTW, if you try to tell BarclayCard of your arrangements over the phone, be prepared to reach your own funeral before getting through on the "Bangalore Drainpipe".
UK call centres have a lot going for them. You can hear what they say. Hey! they answer the phone too.

I've never had any problems getting through to Barclaycard.

I've never had a card refused abroad, but I do tell them before we travel.

Slightly off topic but do check with your bank if they have any tie ins with local banks where you are going. Barclays are with Westpac in Oz so I got free (completely no charges either end) withdrawals at their cash machines at a pretty good exchange rate too.

 

[Lizban]

It's all very tedious and happens everytime I go abroad (about 6-9 a year work dependent) Makes no odds if I call teh bank before. I know have a standard letter that I write that gets the bank to pay my phone call charges that works each time.

As an aside - why would the OP's son come home - there was a whole heap of solutions to the money issue.

1. Western Union
2. MA and PA pay his hotel / hostel by card over the phone and py a little extra so the hotel can advance him some cash
3. Express courier a travellers cheque

(all three work but have 'challenges')

Come home? never there is always an answer!

 

[gbb]

Similar problems at either end of the scale (if you know what i mean)
Working in Uruguay, lost my luggage (i didnt, Iberia did) so had to buy some clothes. I didnt notify my bank beforehand and was expecting the transaction to be refused...but no problem. Circa 9000 miles away, never used the card abroard before...and no-one batted an eyelid .

At the other end of the scale, notified my Building Society beforehand i may use my BS card while working in Cyprus. The volcano episode meant i was stranded for another week with funds fast running out. Went to the ATM there....transaction refused
Phoned the BS up...'you cant do that sir'
'But i organised it'
'We dont normally allow transactions from abroad sir'

'Have you been listening to the news ?...have you no idea people are stuck all over the world ?...i want access to my money, its an emergency. You must have many other customers stuck abroard. If it cant be done, i'll close my account with you when i get back'

' Consider it sorted sir '

Even when you do it right...it goes wrong sometimes