I am with one of the largest banks in the US. I have a home address (Grandma's, where I live when I'm there) that I use in California. Here's some more background:
I work as a teacher in the Middle East and took a new job in China starting next week. I spent the first 5 weeks of my summer travelling throughout Europe and the next week (including now) back in the Middle East (before heading to Asia). Prior to the travel, I called ahead and let them know I would be travelling in a bunch of different countries and gave them the list so that my debit card would not get blocked for withdrawing cash. I went on my trip with the piece of mind that that was taken care of and I'd have a fun trip.
- Went to the first three countries, no problem. Fun! 9 days of travel down.
- Arrive in Poland. Go to withdraw cash. Declined. Try another ATM, declined. Call the bank. Sit in the airport for a while on hold. Once I talk to a person, they tell me they had no travel note and no record that I was travelling. So I tell them everything that I told their colleague 2 weeks earlier. Whatever, no biggie.
- Nearly 3 more weeks of no problems go by - great! Leaving the second to last country on my trip to go to my last stop (for 4 days) and go to an ATM to withdraw cash for that trip - declined! Go to another, declined again.
- Call my bank. Get on the line with a person. I explain my situation. He then tells me (Remember this):
We sent you a new card with a chip (you all know what I'm talking about), so your current card has been deactivated for your security. This was done automatically by the bank.
Me: "Well, reactivate it. I'm in another country, and can't get the one you just sent me in California yet. I need the card - I won't be back in the states for several months" (I'm not planning on visiting home until next summer).
"I'm sorry sir, it can't be reactivated after it's been deactivated. We're going to have to figure out how to get a new one to you. thinks with his manager a while I'm sorry sir, I'm going to have to figure this out. It'll take some time.
So, I ask him to email me if they can rush ship it to me or come up with another solution. He says they'll email me later that day when they come up with a solution.
- A full day later, in a new country, debit cardless (using my credit card only) and I've heard nothing. Pissed at the bank for leaving me stranded in a foreign country with no access to my cash. Luckily my friend was with me for cash only establishments. So, I decide to call again. Get on the phone with a new person, and they tell me that they can ship the card, but only to the address on my account. So I have to change it to the address I'll have in the Middle East (where I'll be for a week). So, get all that done. They agree to rush deliver it. Great. Can't give me a tracking number though, which makes me anxious about if it'll arrive before I leave for Asia. She tells me to call in two days and they should be able to give a tracking number then, once it's finally shipped.
- 2 days later: Call to get the tracking number. Have to explain my situation first. The new rep looks up my account. Puts me on hold for a bit. Comes back and says,
"Hey, that first person you talked to, was their name 'John'?" I said, "Yes it was." She says, "He should have known better. I'm actually angry right now. It seems 'John' actually cancelled your card - it wasn't cancelled before you called, it was only declined because of a communication issue between the bank and those ATMs."
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Needless to say, both her and I were upset. She asks if I want her to report him - I say definitely. She then tells me she's sorry for all the headache. Tries to get the tracking number, but can't. She promises it will be delivered prior to the date it needs to though (due to their deal with UPS I guess). Sounds good.
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Get back to the Middle East. The card arrives they day after I do! Great!
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Wait, there's no PIN in here. So I call again. They tell me, "I'm sorry sir, but we send the PIN separately for security reasons (okay, makes sense - but someone should have mentioned this) and we're not allowed to send them overseas." - what?!? Not something you all should have brought up earlier?
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Okay, I collect myself. I suggest sending it to my California address with my grandma - she can open it and tell me the PIN - they say good idea! And send it. Tell me it should be there in 1-2 days.
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3 days go by. No PIN. What's going on? I give them a call (today). They tell me it "seems the PIN was sent to your Middle East address" - ARE YOU KIDDING ME? They just told me it can't be sent overseas and that they would send it to the California address. So I ask them to change my address back to the California one and send it there now. There's where were at as of now.
So to recap, the bank:
- Cancelled my card while I was travelling overseas, leaving me stranded without access to cash.
- Gave me multiple conflicting answers
- Made me call them 5+ times (from overseas) due to their incompetence.
All in all, I'm very unhappy with my bank. I like the credit card I have with them though (no overseas charge) and am overseas so switching American bank accounts (and I need one for bills in America and such) is rather difficult. What can I do to change banks or at least express my displeasure? Anyone else ever gone through anything like this before and have advice?
TL;DR: Bank cancelled my debit card while I was overseas and has made fixing that mistake and experience from hell.
Submitted July 20, 2017 at 02:18PM by timurlane1 http://ift.tt/2ufrok8
