ATM use - word of warning

Buck

Janice - I haven't even left yet but when I informed my bank about my trip they still won't budge on only allowing a transaction for equiv $20 - $40. I am with the same bank as the initial poster.
However, with a little bit of googling it appears that this is peculiar to only three banks in the UK and my CC company and soon to be new bank are OK.
I've also got the option of buying £ travel cheques for 0% commission and the more I think about it the more this is looking to be the best, cheapest and hassle free way of carrying money. At least if they are stolen they should be replaced within 24 hours.
I'll take my cards but I won't hold my breath because that would be silly!

Buck

tacita

eek! i'd change banks pronto--that's crazy! my condolences. is it a small bank? i use HSBC, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they have a huge international presence, so i can find them virtually anywhere.

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Buck

I'm ahead of you! I'm in the process of changing banks.
Off topic - only slightly!
I asked my CC company if I preload the card with £1000 does it count as a cash advance when I withdraw cash? My reasoning being it's my cash give me it back!
Their answer suprised me.
" You can pay extra money onto your card, but it's not something that we'd recommend. This is because by putting your account into credit B]you won't be protected if your card is lost, stolen or used fraudulently[/b]. You may also experience problems using your card, as your transactions maybe referred for manual authorisation. We also automatically add the cash handling charge. (£3 or %3 + currency conversion charge)."
This is in the same letter saying thanks for letting us know you're going!
This reply came yesterday so I sent an e-mail asking.
If I inadvertantly pay 10p too much one month does that mean my account is in credit and my next transaction does not have the usual protection of Visa etc etc?
Nothing back yet!

buck

Nick-H

What with online banking and internet cafes you don't really need to put your credit card in balance...

Just nip into the internet cafe and pay off what you just spent.

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crvlvr

I coould not agree more. the amazing thing is that when you call the bank, they will claim that they are freezing your card for YOUR protection. Bull$hit! they are doing it for their protection.

On one of my trips to India, my Platinum (means nothing anymore really) credit card stopped working in India. I had to borrow a friends phone make an international call to my bank. (This caused some embarrassment as i had, just a minute earlier, fought some friends away from the bill and claiming that it was my turn to pay)

The bank gives me the usual about fraud protection. I insisted that they take of ALL fraud protection on my account and if they ever froze my accoutn again, I would never use them again. Since then, my card has always worked.

Nick-H

"For Your own Safety and Convenience..."

Oh, don't we just love those those words. We know that what follows is going to be nothing to do with our convenience...

robotvoice

One more reason why i always use travelers checks.

GoanCanuck

You still have to pay the cash advance fee/surcharge when you withdraw cash from an ATM using your credit card even if you have pre-loaded your card. This is standard practice for almost all banks.

GoanCanuck

Ditto for Canada.

Prashant.M

Not so sure about security here. Internet cafe PCs usually have a lot of Trojans, viruses, keyboard loggers and whatnot. Sensitive details can easily end up in the wrong hands. I have never used publicly shared PCs for sensitive stuff, maybe somebody more experienced in these things can explain better or provide do's and don'ts.

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Nick-H

If your bank has one of those infuriatingly safe enter-the-first-and-seventeenth-letters of your password things it should be fairly safe. I've done it for separate periods of a few months in London, and a few months in India.

My Indian bank requires entering a complete password: I wouldn't like to do that from a cafe.

Lugubert

Even if I enter my social security number and my personal code for identification for everyone to see, it's no problem. My little Swedish electronic size-of-a-matchbox thing delivers two use once encryption numbers on cues from my bank's website, so I'm perfectly safe.

My problems have been that one of my cards, despite sporting the MasterCard logo, doesn't work abroad or when buying on-line, and that I have sometimes misunderstood the instructions for Indian ATM's. I know how to dunk a cookie when having tea, but that dunking your card meant inserting it and immediately withdrawing it was beyond me. Repeating what I thought was the correct procedure was recorded as entering the wrong code, and so that card was frozen. Fortunately, I had a third card, and soon found an ATM with more clever instructions, and the following two months presented no new problems.