desperate for help
 

i arrived in oz a week ago and am having serious problems with my uk bank cards here.

the story is as follows. its a lloyds tsb visa delta debit card which will work when swiped through an eftpos but is simply rejected if i attempt to withdraw cash from an atm. i am not allowed to get cashback from eftpos because all foreign cards go through as credit.

i have contacted lloyds in the uk who have no explanation for it at all. the only thing i have been able to do is transfer money from the uk to my new account here but that will take 3-5 days.

i have explained the situation to commonwealth bank who have said that there is nothing they can do. they wont give me any overdraft until i can prove i have a job.

i'm desperate now. i have 35 cents in my pocket. has anyone else had the same problems and what did you/can i do??

i know as long as the card works with eftpos i'm not going to starve but it means i'm forced to spend $10 every time i use it, and this doesnt help if i want to get a bus.

i'm hoping someone can help.

Re: desperate for help
 

When you withdraw cash from an ATM, do you select the "Credit" or "Savings" option ? or have you tried both ?

Re: desperate for help
 

Where in Oz are you?

Is there anyone you know who you can buy the shopping for on your card and they give you the cash?

Not much help I know- hope you get sorted

Re: desperate for help
 

Hi Andy,

I had exactly the same problems with my Lloyds TSB card and the only thing that worked for me was to use ANZ cashpoints. Hope it works.

Re: desperate for help
 

That's a very good idea :)

Re: desperate for help
 

I have a Lloyds card which is a normal cashpoint card, and a Lloyds visa card - I can get ATM cash on both but they both have to be entered into the ATM as "credit".

Westpac machines arent keen on Lloyds cards BTW, and I sometimes have trouble between 10pm-1am UK TIME .

Re: desperate for help
 

thanks for all your suggestions.

to answer some of your questions, i'm in wollongbar (halfway between lismore and byron bay). i can now hear some of you asking why i'm in the the middle of nowhere. well, i'm staying with the parents of someone i met when they travelled around europe. sort of repaying favours.

i have tried withdrawing money against credit, savings and cheque with no success.

i have phoned anz bank who promise me that my card will work but as of yet i'm not going to hold my breath.

i did ask lloyds if the time difference was a factor and they said no. the only time it may not work is if visa are updating or repairing their system which normally happens once a month, although i have subsequently found out that visa are not one organisation. each continent, and sometimes country, operates as a subsiduary(sp) of the parent company and therefore they run on different systems!!

lloyds have been relatively good about it. they have waived all charges to transfer my money but i did point out they should double check their literature, you know, the standard line of our cards will work in 10million machines around the world!!!

i had a similar problem when i travelled across canada and the usa, in that some banks took my card and some didn't but it was far easier to get cash back as my card was drawn against the chequing option.

again, thanks for the suggestions and i'll keep you posted as it may help some other poor bugger stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Re: desperate for help
 

Any card with a Visa logo *should* work in any ATM bearing the Visa logo worldwide. Especially if it's issued in a country like the UK that does not have foreign exchange controls.

I would complain to Visa in Australia.
http://www.visa.com.au

Is this card the *only* UK card you've got?

Jeremy

Re: desperate for help
 

i was given a phone number for visa australia by lloyds, as there is no "contact us" link on their web site, and they simply told me to contact my bank because they are the card provider (the lady did rather rudely point out that this is explained on their site if i had bothered to read it properly!!)

it was also they that explained that there are different visa systems in operation around the world which is why it may not work.

oh well, i'm now off to ballina to try the anz machine.

Re: desperate for help
 

I would still put an official complaint in writing. That doesn't sound correct to me - a Visa logo should mean worldwide acceptability, no ifs or buts (and certainly none of this talk about different 'systems'). Maybe write to Visa in the UK?

A black mark for Visa vs Mastercard, I'd say.

Jeremy

Re: desperate for help
 

success!!!!! not with anz though. bank of brisbane atm spewed out that lovely paper stuff!!!!

lloyds phoned me again last night and asked if i would keep a record of atm's that i can and cant use, with the view to including it in their account guides. you never know, they may pay me to travel the world and test atm's!!!!

Re: desperate for help
 

Scary thought really... I know most of us use cash very rarely anymore but we still DO and to be without it when you need it is such a pain in th @rse!

Glad that you sorted it all out and that you can now board a bus :D

Siren

Re: desperate for help
 

Glad you finally got some cash; I've been trying to remember my Lloyds experiences - they don't work in any of the "local" banks like St george, or Heritage, even though there are Visa signs on the machines. Commonwealth is usually OK, ANZ I had problems with - stuck in a small town with only an ANZ machine and it woudln't accept it. National Australia Bank is the one I sue most often now I think, no probs with that one.