Halifax clarity won`t work abroad in Egypt.

bestyman

We are in Egypt at the moment and have a Halifax clarity card that won`t work.
We phoned halifax 3 times over 2 days and they had no explanation as to why the card keeps getting declined. Terrible customer service and we will be canceling the card when we get back.
We also took Nationwide and HSBC cards with us otherwise we would be right up the Nile without a paddle.
Just a warning to others not to rely on the Halifax when abroad.

knightstyle

We have been using it in France with no problems for purchases and cash withdrawals. Will be interested to find out why you are having problems as we will be traveling more soon.
Please keep us informed.

NonGeographicalMan

bestyman wrote: »

We also took Nationwide and HSBC cards with us otherwise we would be right up the Nile without a paddle.

Were your Nationwide and HSBC cards both Visa cards whilst the Clarity card is a Mastercard?

If so then some kind of acceptance problem on Mastercards from overseas in Egypt and/or at the merchants in question on the dates you were trying to use your card would seem to be the likely problem.

There are some countries in the third world where most merchants are signed up only with Visa or Mastercard rather than with both companies even though it is the norm in the UK to accept both cards even though it is not compulsory to do so (as seen with Lord Coe's exclusive deal with Visa for the London Olympics).

zagfles

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Were your Nationwide and HSBC cards both Visa cards whilst the Clarity card is a Mastercard?

If so then some kind of acceptance problem on Mastercards from overseas in Egypt and/or at the merchants in question on the dates you were trying to use your card would seem to be the likely problem.

Yes, and sometimes it's the other way round - in Italy a few years ago I had all sorts of problems with my Nationwide VISA debit card - kept coming up with "bank has declined the transaction" but on phoning Nationwide they said they hadn't declined anything, turns out there is (was?) a general problem with VISA cards in Italy. MasterCards were fine.

DUTR

zagfles wrote: »

Yes, and sometimes it's the other way round - in Italy a few years ago I had all sorts of problems with my Nationwide VISA debit card - kept coming up with "bank has declined the transaction" but on phoning Nationwide they said they hadn't declined anything, turns out there is (was?) a general problem with VISA cards in Italy. MasterCards were fine.

I had the same in Andorra years ago, it was after that I realised, and carry one of each when I travel :j

Westin

Agree with the last three posts. Feel more likely a MasterCard problem on the day or with a particular retailer. Always best to travel with several options to access funds including both a Visa and MasterCard credit card.

I always use my Halifax Clarity overseas as it is the best for overseas use, but will always take back up plastic as well.

bestyman

Halifax is Mastercard, HSBC is mastercard (worked ok) and Nationwide Visa (worked ok) so not a MC problem.

In fairness to Halifax, my wife phoned to cancel the card today and was offered appologies and a good will gesture. We decided not to cancel the card afterall.

Warning still applies though not to rely on a card even if you phone them before travel as we did.

NonGeographicalMan

bestyman wrote: »

Warning still applies though not to rely on a card even if you phone them before travel as we did.

Never rely on being able to use any one single card at a retailer (most of all at a petrol station or a restaurant where you cannot suck the fuel out of your tank or regurgitate your food back in to their kitchen so the Police are likely to be called) especially now that the process of the merchant phoning their own card accepting bank to find out what the problem is with your card no longer seems to exist at most retailers. Instead your card is now just pushed back at you and you are asked to come up with another one instead.

When I arrived in the USA this summer my Nationwide Visa card was summarily declined by Dollar Rent A Car at Orlando Airport even though I had no history of problems with using this card overseas and Nationwide had never previously been a card issuer inclined to randomly refuse payment (unlike say the Egg Money Mastercard). When I complained on getting back it turned out a number of attempts to use my card with customer not present had been made in Spain but failed due not having the correct CVV number. I do go to Spain regularly but had not been there for 8 months at the time of my trip to the USA.

PurplePow

In case anyone is worried - I used my Halifax Clarity Mastercard in Egypt without any issues only 2 months ago.

NonGeographicalMan

GemmaC25 wrote: »

In case anyone is worried - I used my Halifax Clarity Mastercard in Egypt without any issues only 2 months ago.

I remember that in the late 80s and early 90s when I was first regulalrly travelling on my own in Europe that it would be quite common for overseas connectivity of the Visa or Mastercard networks to go down for a few hours or a day more so you could not withdraw cash at bank cash machines even though local cards still worked fine

Although there was usually a work around of going in to the bank during working hours and bank staff manually verifying the transaction by telephone this was hardly much help on a Saturday afternoon (most overseas banks in Spain seem to close at only 2pm or so) if Monday was also a bank holiday.

However with travellers cheques and Eurocheques both now being made obsolete unfortunately more and more of us are left with no back up at all if all the electronic card verification links between the country you are in and the UK go down...........

Party_Animal

Used mine last month in Egypt, no probs, but always take a back up.