Learning the hard way!

A small piece of advice here....... don't ever travel overseas with only one bank card!!!

Fletch being Fletch with his usual awareness for security took recent high street bank advice and instead of traveling with a fist full of credit and bank cards took only one, apparently fraud overseas has increased dramatically and to carry too many is to invite problems.

Ok, so maybe to take just one was a little over the top, as a discharged bankrupt I cannot have such luxuries and hence can't help out in a situation like we found ourselves.

The account for which Fletch was card carrying was 'well stocked' to cover all eventualities and we had a fair amount of cash on us but as is the way of holidays cash soon departs the pocket and so we hit an ATM on the Friday evening in San Giminano....you know what happened next don't you....the computer said no! Huffing and puffing a little we set about calling the bank in the U.K. (via very expensive mobile connection I might add) only to be told by some spotty youth that 'all cards had been stopped overseas but it would be working within 24 hours'!!! Seemed a little strange but as further questioning produced no more information we crossed our fingers and waited the 24 hours.

The following evening we called again, asking that the bank call us back to save the call charges "we aren't allowed to call back overseas" was the answer!! No, I bet their not if they make cock ups like this one turned out to be.....hey, why pay for your inefficiency yourself when some other poor fool can take the hassle and the financial fallout! FFS! Banks!

This time we were told there was 'a problem' with the card. Yup, dead right Fletch informed them.....the problem was that we were in Italy, needed to check out of a hotel and had no other way to pay than this card. I might add here that we had 'embellished' our situation to try and get some action, we did in fact have enough cash to check out and get home but little else!

We again were promised that the card would be re-activated within 24 hours. We had no choice but to hope!

Twenty four hours passed and of course you know, as we did that it wasn't gonna happen, so yet another expensive phone call was made.

At last we got a lady who wasn't hot out of school, looked at her screen properly and told us that the card was stopped because it had been cloned in the U.K. So much for fraud overseas! Fletch went painfully again through the 'we are stranded in Italy' story only to be told we needed to speak with the fraud department....who weren't open! Thoroughly p*ssed off by this point and given that when asked her to find us a solution to our plight she replied she 'didn't have one', stuck we would remain in Italy, Fletch lost his usual kind and polite attitude a little. This finally produced a little action and she agreed to call us back with a solution the next morning, though she didn't believe that I wasn't carrying any cards and kept suggesting we use mine! Jeez! Are all banks completely inept!?

But good to her word she did call back at the specified time (we had explained we would be on the road and one can't hear a phone or answer it when sporting a crash hat) and we had made sure we were parked up to receive that call. More yada, yada, yada, more crap and more excuses but FINALLY she managed to get the fruad boys to activate the card again until we returned to the U.K. Hurrah!!

The whole issue had detracted a little from the few days we had in Italy, which was more than a bit annoying but finally we were solvent again.......that was until we tried to check out of a hotel again further down the line and found the card to be stopped again!!! I won't bore you with that tale though, well not yet anyways!

Banks just don't want to help their poor reputation it seems. I appreciate fully that they were doing their job and that to identify that the card had been cloned and to act on that was a positive thing but what I don't understand is that they don't have a system in place to solve the kind of problem we had, they couldn't have given a damn if we really had been stranded and had missed a flight/crossing etc. or had been unable to check out of the hotel, even the suggestion from us that they just allow us one withdrawal of cash having gone through and passed stringent security questioning fell on deaf ears.

What was most frustrating was that it is the banks recent suggestion not to carry too many cards (ok, only one might have been taking it a little far with the benefit of hindsight), Fletch had made sure there were more than ample funds and this was his money, not even a credit card and they still wouldn't give him access to any of it....and little more did they care, we spent two days being fobbed off by spotty teenagers who apparently didn't even have the wit to read their screen properly!

The possibility of being stranded in Italy indefinitely had its attractions but Euro-less??!

So, the lesson learnt is never trust a banks advice and never travel without a fistful of plastic.....the fraud in this case was committed in the U.K anyways before we left!