Banking problem on holiday that could have left me stranded

Sew_Late

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place or not and want advice on how I could have been best handled this and what to do in the future.  I don't normally go on holiday so I'm a bit wet behind the ears on this but have always wanted to go to Japan.  I booked two weeks to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto, then Osaka.  I bank with Santander and on advice got a Revolut card.  I think my first mistake was not transferring all my holiday money to Revolut.  Also on advice I got a new sim card at the airport with unlimited data and changed that over.  I assumed I could just transfer money from Santander to Revolut as I went. I had enough money to pay for my hotel in Tokyo and food money.  However, just before I left Tokyo to travel to Kyoto I tried to transfer some money from Santander to Revolut and got the message 'Request denied'.  Tried a few times. I couldn't use my phone to ring them - it said 'spending cap' (EE).  I tried my everyday UK sim as well - no idea how much it was going to cost me to ring them either.  I then tried to use the chat facility.  As it was about 4.00 am in the morning UK time I put a message on the chat and said I was travelling but found that when I was able to next log in that the chat had been closed down because I had not responded.  I then started another chat - explained I couldn't transfer money, needed to pay hotel and other things (for instance, I wanted to transfer money to my brother for his 60th birthday), pay for my Tesco shop for my return, etc.  The operator said she could see no reason why it had been denied but she couldn't help me.  Issues with wifi connectivity didn't help.  This left me stranded - I couldn't phone and couldn't email and couldn't get help via chat.  They then closed my account for security reasons.  I had to borrow money from family to pay for my hotels in Kyoto and Osaka and for food, etc, which they transferred to my Revolut but luckily they were able to help me.  What if they couldn't have?  I got back early this morning and of course until I sort the bank account can't pay people back.  I'm beyond angry but don't know what I should have done as this was a new experience for me.  My family have told me to get a Monzo account as they've never had problems abroad.  So, my question really is 'What should I have done and what were my options - what didn't I think of?'  I'd like to know as I loved Japan and would like to try and do that trip again in 3 or 4 years' time.

la531983

Have more than one card. Nobody should rely on just one.

This is true even if not travelling, there have been countless threads on this board of people who have had their account temporarily suspended whilst ALL of their money was in there 

Emmia

The problem is probably because you started doing lots of new things at once, which flagged up fraud markers. New sim card, new account (revolut) and overseas suddenly... Your bank was suspicious that you'd been hacked and so stopped the payments. 

I personally wouldn't have used Revolut, I'd probably have used a credit card for my spending and would just pay it off when I returned.

masonic

Santander do advise that you let them know about travel outside of Europe: https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/helping-you-when-travelling-abroad

While the advice centres on use of your card abroad, I have heard anecdotally of them placing restrictions when unexpected connections from other countries are made via the app or online banking. Transfers to Revolut have traditionally be considered higher risk by banks, so add to that the transaction being made from Japan and it perhaps explains what happened.

Like others I would use one of the fee free credit or debit cards that are available from several mainstream providers to fund my foreign spending, and would avoid the need to make bank transfers while abroad as far as is practical. I'd have a VPN ready should I have difficulties, and I would have accounts at more than one bank available in case of issues with one of them. I'd check the policies of each bank regarding foreign travel and conform to these.

eDicky

Sew_Late said:

So, my question really is 'What should I have done and what were my options - what didn't I think of?'

Assuming you were carrying your Santander debit card, you could have used that for payments instead of Revolut. Not ideal with fees involved, but as mentioned your principal mistake was to travel with limited payment options - in future prepare and take a range of fee-free cards so that any case of failure has no serious consequence.

Sew_Late

la531983 said:

Have more than one card. Nobody should rely on just one.

This is true even if not travelling, there have been countless threads on this board of people who have had their account temporarily suspended whilst ALL of their money was in there 

Thank you - that's good advice.  I've not had a problem before but I'll make sure I do that. 

Sew_Late

masonic said:

Santander do advise that you let them know about travel outside of Europe: https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/helping-you-when-travelling-abroad

While the advice centres on use of your card abroad, I have heard anecdotally of them placing restrictions when unexpected connections from other countries are made via the app or online banking. Transfers to Revolut have traditionally be considered higher risk by banks, so add to that the transaction being made from Japan and it perhaps explains what happened.

Like others I would use one of the fee free credit or debit cards that are available from several mainstream providers to fund my foreign spending, and would avoid the need to make bank transfers while abroad as far as is practical. I'd have a VPN ready should I have difficulties, and I would have accounts at more than one bank available in case of issues with one of them. I'd check the policies of each bank regarding foreign travel and conform to these.

Thank you - you are right and I'll be better prepared next time.  I'll look into vpn as well as I don't have that and I'll look into the card situation too. 

Sew_Late

Emmia said:

The problem is probably because you started doing lots of new things at once, which flagged up fraud markers. New sim card, new account (revolut) and overseas suddenly... Your bank was suspicious that you'd been hacked and so stopped the payments. 

I personally wouldn't have used Revolut, I'd probably have used a credit card for my spending and would just pay it off when I returned.

Thank you, that's all very likely.  I'll be bit more savvy next time.   

Sew_Late

eDicky said:

Sew_Late said:

So, my question really is 'What should I have done and what were my options - what didn't I think of?'

Assuming you were carrying your Santander debit card, you could have used that for payments instead of Revolut. Not ideal with fees involved, but as mentioned your principal mistake was to travel with limited payment options - in future prepare and take a range of fee-free cards so that any case of failure has no serious consequence.

Thank you.  I'll be more savvy on that next time, definitely!

friolento

I would always use credit cards https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money/

Revolut or Monzo would not be top of my list. 

I also have a few hundred US dollars or Euros in cash, just as a last resort if something goes wrong with the cards.

A VPN is a very good idea, as you can easily connect to a UK server. 

I would also get an e-SIM, usually from airalo. 

daveyjp

Revolut is not a financial organisation I would trust my money with.