So Tom Scud and I are in Barcelona, minus his wallet, which was apparently pickpocketed on the train from the airport. Also, my ATM card is not working in any of 4 ATMs so far; I am getting “this transaction is unavailable” messages, though there is plenty of money in the account, and it’s on the Cirrus network, which is supposed to be international. And it’s a holiday weekend, so I am thinking banks, etc. won’ t be open until Monday, or even Tuesday.
We have maybe 50 euros cash, plus a few dollars I could change into euros, but not enough to get us through the week. How can we a) figure out what establishments will accept a magnetic strip credit card, other than by trial and error, and/or b) figure out why the hell my ATM card isn’t working? My bank says they see no network issues on their end, but they are closed now until Monday…and thank goodness for my IPad and Skype, so we could make all the calls to cancel cards, etc.
Actually no, they’re not closed until Monday: they’re closed until Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday in Catalonia.
Which kind of CC do you have? The new readers can take magnetic-strip-only cards as well, I have a mixture of both, but anything other than Visa will be iffy.
In theory, Servired is connected to Cirrus, but if your PIN has more than 4 figures, many ATMs won’t accept that.
I have 3 (one Visa, one MC, and one AMEX). I had only tried the MC so far, because that one doesn’t charge exchange commissions. The problem is for example, at RENFE they wanted my PIN, which I have no clue about because in the US you only need a PIN for cash advances, which I have never done. The Internet is telling me that there are approximately half a billion Cirrus ATMs within a mile of here, so I think we are just going to crash for tonight, and try them tomorrow. The whole Cirrus network can’t have been down since 3 pm, can it?
Does your bank know you are overseas? I’m guessing there is a greater than 0, less than 100 percent chance that they blocked a cash withdrawal for potential fraud?
Not the bank where my checking account is, but I’ve never had a problem anywhere until now with an ATM withdrawal from checking, and when we called to report the theft of Tom’s ATM cards for his private and our joint account, they said they saw no problems with unauthorized usage on any of our accounts, and no network problems on their end.
This is one of them times when your American Express account is worth the annual fee. Office at Passeig de Gràcia 101 (tel. 93-255-00-70; Metro: Diagonal)
Another source says there are two AmEx offices and gives a different phone number: the one at Passeig de Gràcia 101 (tel. 93-415-23-71), and the other at La Rambla 74 (tel. 93-301-11-66).
I’ve gone to Europe from Canada without telling my bank, and both Visa and Bank Card worked fine. However, with some recent travel, I did phone my bank and they mentioned that it was a good idea to tell them when we were out of country, just in case the software did try to block a transaction. Last time I was in Europe was 2006, and no problem then with magstripe anywhere even though Europeans commonly had the chip and pin.
Most cards have a help line number, if it’s not too onerous or expensive and nothing works, try calling that to see.
The first two are the same one, if you notice… it’s about 11 blocks from your hotel, Eva: 9 “left” and two “up”. Or, two subway stations, blue line (5). Like the banks, it won’t open until Tuesday.
Happens to me without fail every single time I go to the US. Even when I tell them in advance. It’s maddening. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case here.
Thanks guys, I will check with them for sure. The funny thing is I actually already called AMEX and reported the other card stolen and specifically asked about this, and was told the closest office was in Madrid. On the bright side, the AMEX card is via Costco, so no annual fee beyond the Costco membership. and it’s not like we are totally broke, and We also have a few euros and a few dollars in cash. As soon as it’s not 3 am, I will venture forth and try again with the ATMs. Can’t call my own bank to double-check about the ATM issue until Monday, but when I called yesterday, they didn’t suggest anything about the ATM card being frozen.
Also, yay for iPad with Skype, or this all would have been even suckier.
This is why I tend to travel with cash stuffed in multiple places… I was in Kuwait when the entire country’s ATM network and credit card network died for a day… a day I was leaving the country and the hotel could only take cash.
I do have some cash, just not enough for the whole trip, and would have had more if Tom’s wallet hadn’t been stolen. and sheesh, it’s Spain! It’s changed a lot here since I was a student in Madrid in 1988, and the economy was much more cash-based; back then I had a bank account, but paid rent, for example, in cash. It’s kind of boggling that I am having problems with the TM AND the credit card, though maybe I will have better luck with the Visa than with the MC card I tried already (because it doesn’t charge exchange commissions). Also I will probably function a bit better with more than an hour of sleep, and if I am speaking to someone other than the CHinese waiter who barely spoke Spanish at all. Also, a HS buddy who was just in Spain a few weeks ago is suggesting that credit cards are less of an issue if one presents a passport, and I’d rather not carry mine around under the circumstances, but maybe I will have to.
He is lucky; I never made it out of the Madrid airport. And I was traveling alone, with no backup.
When I returned the following year (with cash and credit cards up the wazoo), I had no problem with any of my cards. But last year, in France, Citibank just shut down my card, assuming it had been stolen . . . rather than simply ASKING ME whether I was in France. This seems to be happening more and more often, and i guess we’re expected to tell them ahead of time when traveling, or making unusual purchases.
The annoying part is we did call ALL the credit card companies to give our travel info. What point is there to having an international network if you can’t actually rely on the damn card? I keep trying to tell myself it could have been worse; it could have been a mugging instead of pick pocketing, it could have been both of us, and it could have been our passports too…
If it comes down to it, lots of people have offered to wire us money, but I hope we won’t need to make anyone do that.
Hmmm…it’s looking like we may be able to essentially send ourselves money via Western Union even if we don’t have a PIN for any of the credit cards. Not open Sunday, though, or probably Monday…but better than making someone in the States wire us money.
Try your driver’s license, it’s a valid form of ID. We can even use ours to vote, if they’re the new version which lists ctizenship.
The Spanish banking system is a bitch in that each office is essentially a separate company, so you kept being told to “see your office” for anything. But at least since the people in “my” offices know I hopscotch all over the map, so they call or email me when they get an exotic transaction.
