This is a regular problem for both my partner and I. Despite living and travelling in Asia for the last decade, I still regularly have my mastercard stopped while in another country — despite having called my bank to tell them to stop doing it, they continue to — I now travel with a bunch of travellers cheques to cover me for my banks idiocy.

My partner travels almost as much as I do, yet her bank didn’t stop her Visa card earlier this year despite it being fraudulently copied and some US$5,000 spent in Japan on it. In that case some of the transactions happened on the same day she was using it in Jakarta — I would have thought that an Australian visa card being used for cash advances in both Jakarta and Osaka on the same day would have raised a few red flags — apparently not.

Difficult to see any kind of method to their madness, in my opinion best solution is to travel with multiple sources of money (multiple credit cards, TQ’s and cash for example).

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Darren

I had my card cloned several times while away. Having been stung once I was then careful, only to be caught out again. So now Credit Card Company blocks all overseas transactions unless I tell them first. After speaking to my card company last time they told me that some places will run a card though one machine but it not real, there is no way of telling except the transaction does not show on statement.

There are now cards you can set up for overseas transations. Preloaded them with money.

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I have had the same problem with my debit card (i.e. to take cash out of my current account). It seems to be fairly arbitrary though – the first time I tried to use it overseas it was frozen, but I’ve never had it happen since. It was a good 7-8 years ago. My credit card has always worked fine.

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When we went to Prague, we took your advice Darren and took a little bit of money, our credit and debit cards. I was worried that if we relied on our debit card, and the card machine swollowed it, we’d have ruined our holiday.

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We are taking cash and debit cards for our girls holiday to Majorca in September.

How much cash do you think we should take?

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No problems (so far) for me. If you have had a credit card for years only using in own country, and then suddenly start using in another country for the first time, then your card might be rejected if you haven’t contacted your bank first.

Those with a history of using card internationally should not run into any problems, except maybe if a purchase is out of the ordinary (eg 20,000 pounds on a single transaction when all other purchases are under 100 pounds).

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I’ve had a few problems using my credit card abroad. They were easily resolved though when you call the credit card company and confirm you are abroad and that you are using your card.

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Hi,

I want compensation from Abbey. Can anyone give me advice?

I’ve just returned from a 3day trip to LA. My trip was a complete nightmare because Abbey put my debit card on stop on the 2nd day.

When I tried to withdraw money from an ATM, to enter a tournament (the reason I was in LA), my card was declined. I knew I had plenty of money in my account and it had worked hours earlier. I attempted to withdraw money from 2 more machines and a bank. ALL DECLINED.

This left me totally stranded. I had less than $10, no other cards, the battery on my phone was dead, and I was on my own, miles away from the hotel and unable to enter the tournament.

I have been with Abbey for over 15 years (I do not have any other accounts or cards). I also my mortgage and house insurance is with them. I travel abroad on average 4/5 times a year, always using my card. Never before has my debit card been declined.

Abbey has not told me I should contact them every time I plan to use my card abroad. And because I have not had any problems previously, it didn’t cross my mind to inform them of my planned trip.

I had no means of contacting Abbey with no money. I was unable to do anything for the remainder of my holiday and was very distressed and felt very isolated. My trip had been ruined by Abbey’s action.

I am now back in the UK, feeling angry.

Customer services have been a waste of time. After being transferred from one department to another, on hold to their overseas call centre for over an hour they can’t even give me an accurate reason why my card was put on stop.

Abbeys actions have caused me a great deal of wasted expense and put me in a very daunting situation.

I want to take action against Abbey and claim for compensation. Can anyone give me advice on who I should go to, etc?

Thank you

Michelle

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You have no chance Michelle. Even with less than $10 you could have called Abbey from a payphone and asked them to call you back.

The requirement to advise card issuers of proposed overseas trips has received wide publicity in the media for several years now.

Look at this another way. Suppose someone had cloned your debit card and obtained your pin no. This can happen when crooks attach a gadget to an ATM. The crooks then use the cloned card abroad, emptying your account. Wouldn’t you say to Abbey “Hey, why didn’t you check when all that cash was being withdrawn overseas???”

BTW I have no connection with Abbey or any oither card issuer.

Cromar

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I informed my bank when i was going away (natwest).

They didn’t lock my card whilst I was away in Thailand, but als when I got to the airport in london and tried to hire a car… they locked it!

Luckily though i have a business account, and so could call up and speak to an adviser even though it was 9.30pm! – they sorted it within 15mins, but still… I thought it odd that my card was fine whilst in Thailand, but locked at heathrow!!! – had me worried for a moment also – images of sleeping in the airport were flooding into my brain!!!

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I have just returned from a holiday in Florida where HSBC stopped my credit card. I phoned them twice before I left to tell them where I was going and when because I had heard horror stories of people being stranded without funds. I was so paranoid about it happening that I also took plenty of cash just in case. Lucky I did because on the first two credit card transactions the bank tried to phone me but couldn’t get hold of me (some mobiles just don’t work in the US) and when I next tried to use my card to pre-pay for petrol but it wouldn’t authorise it. It didn’t click at first, but then I checked my e-mail and there was a message from the bank to say they had tried to contact me unsuccessfully and had limited use of the account. I was furious. When I returned to the UK I complained to my bank and have just received a letter denying that they had stopped the card (apparently these are just automated e-mails and they don’t mean what they say!) and generally ignoring the fact that I had told them I was going away. However, they have offered me £350 as a good will gesture.

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I have just returned from New York, a fantastic family holiday ruined by SKYCARD.
Two adults and two children…no food for 36 hours……no petrol in car for the 190 mile trip from Heathrow to Wales. Massive stress and anxiety!
On my return home….fraud department employee aggressive and non sympathetic.
Due to her behavior amongst the other issues, I have lodged a formal complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service. I want the opportunity to explain the issue to an impartial and unbiased person….namely a county court judge. Advice for other people……don’t be put off by any bullying tactics.

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Michelle I do feel for you. But Cromar’s points are valid too. I keep having a problem with Abbey – I spend on average nine months in SE Asia a year and despite Abbey acknowledging that I do notify them that I am abroad and using my ATM card it still gets frozen.. Seems there is a limit of about 2.5 months that their system can be set to allow overseas transactions. Cromar doesn’t however allow for the fact that an overseas call which places you in a 15 minute queue will soon consume $10. Then you do get through and have to go through security checks with Customer Serrvice only to be told that “yes” there is a hold and please wait while I transfer you through to fraud dept to release it, then have to go through security checks again. You’ve now spend a lot of money you don’t have. The system would be fine if you were able to call the local Visa/Mastercard office on a freephone number.

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Lobat Tom, Don’t credit card companies have collect call phone numbers you can dial when you’re outside your home area? I know Citibank does.

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Just back after 3 weeks travelling throughout Europe. Notified Citibank & Natwest in advance and had no problems. Total spend in excess of £4K. However, using First Direct Maestro card to withdraw cash from ATM I got a rate of 1.19 euros/£ whereas Citibank converted my purchases on the same day at £1.225.

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Natwest/RBS cards seem the strictest on this.
I previously used an Amex or Lloyds card most when I travelled frequently for work and never had an issue.
After a bad experience with my card being rejected in the Prada outlet in Italy (believe me, with the amount of nice stuff I had which I thought I couldn’t have, I was nearly in tears) that was back in the days before I had a travel company and actually had some disposable income LOL. I now always make a point of calling them before I leave the country to let them know outbound and inbound dates. Though to be fair, they always called my mobile, it’s just that time of that incident, I was trying to call them as they were trying to call me. They seem hotter about it in Italy than Thailand for some reason, perhaps time zones?

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My friend had similar problem. He came to London (from India) with his credit card and cash-top up card. His credit card stopped working and cash-top up card when used in one of the Natwest cash machine was swallowed. Apparently they destroy any cards swallowed by their cash machines.

He was left really distressed due to incident; luckily he had friends in London (including me) who helped him to get out of that situation.

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I had a similar and ongoing problem. I’m in Taiwan, and the first time I used my UK mastercard here to try and withdraw cash it locked me out. I called mastercard up and they told me I had to go back to an ATM and go through some series of menus on the screen in order to restore it to use … except none of the ATM’s in Taiwan have this function!

Meaning it’s completely useless now, and this is why I signed up to it in the first place. IN AN AIRPORT. Is it REALLY the case they can’t simply reactivate the thing from their end, so I can’t use it until I return home months from now?

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