How to get currency in Hong Kong with only a debit card?

Havin_it

Hello, and HELP!

I failed to get a credit card before flying to Hong Kong, and now I'm stuck with all my funds sitting in my bank at home and a Visa Debit card (Bank of Scotland if that matters) that can't get at it via ATMs (tried HSBC, Hang Seng and Bank of China so far).

Are there other ATMs that might work? Would a BdC let me buy dollars using this card?

The one other suggestion has been that I transfer the funds to someone else here to withdraw for me (I have someone I trust to do this) but I'm worried an int'l transfer would take too long.

I'm in a real pickle and any advice would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

AlwaysHere

Have you tried over the counter?

https://transferwise.com
If you need right now; https://www.westernunion.com/gb/en/send-money-online.html

PeacefulWaters

Call them. +44 173 357 4121.

That said, they are very expensive to use overseas, especially for small transactions. Once you have got your card working I'd suggest one large cash withdrawal is better value than several smaller transactions.

eDicky

Does your card work for purchases, or is it completely blocked? If BoS has put a block because of unexpected foreign use, it will not work for anything and only they can unblock it when you call them. If it does work for purchases then it's not blocked and the phone call is a waste of time and money.

Money sent to your trusted party's bank account in HK (if that's what you mean) by TransferWise is likely to arrive the next day.

No doubt you already realise how foolish it was to travel with only a single (and expensive) source of funds.

Havin_it

Thanks for all the replies, and sorry my followup's been less urgent than my OP.

My bank card was indeed blocked, and once I finally managed to phone them (comms problems too - don't ask) they unblocked it. It's now clear I mistyped my PIN due to the keypad layout being different here (I just type it on muscle memory).

So no esoteric solutions required. Thanks all for the suggestions though, and @eDicky Yeah, I do:embarasse:embarasse