A&L's foreign ATM policy

reserved

Have just returned from a holiday in New Zealand having advised A&L that I was going. Tried to withdraw cash from various ATM's but request was always refused. Finally managed to withdraw 100NZ$ (£40 approx.) from one ATM. When I contacted them got the following reply "From time to time Alliance & Leicester and other banks, experience fraudulent activities on overseas ATMs. As a result of this we seek to protect the interests of our customers by limiting the cash withdrawal limits available on a temporary basis in different parts of the world."
I didn't relalise that New Zealand was a hotbed of fradulent activity, and why impose such a ridiculously low limit.
I was able to obtain cash advances from bank branches out there using my debit card but that's not as convenient as using an ATM.

If you are going on holiday abroad and hoping to use your A&L debit card in ATM's, be aware that you may have problems!

MarkyMarkD

I think the same could happen with any bank. Even if you have forewarned them of your visit, they won't necessarily allow transactions.

didac

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I think the same could happen with any bank. Even if you have forewarned them of your visit, they won't necessarily allow transactions.

I agree. I had a Maestro debit card with the HSBC and had this problem all the time when going to abroad.

I'm currently changing to A&L and at least the have VISA which I hope won't be as bad as the 'maestro' or Mastercard cards.

I went to Barbados in January and in a number of places the mastercard credit card for the HSBC were not accepted.

So from now on, I'll stick to VISA.

I heard that A&L are dreadfull for customer service but they can be so long as I can have my 0% overdraft facility. Unlike the HSBC which charged me £100 for being overdrawn less that £100 in just 1 day. THIEFS:mad:

Hazzanet

didac wrote: »

So from now on, I'll stick to VISA.

Been many places with Visa cards and had very few problems. Ironically the only place I had problems with a Visa card was in the USA, the home of the ruddy brand, where it kept coming up "Call for authorisation" in every store. A swift phone call got an auth code immediately, but it was a tad embarrassing.

With respect to ATMs, I've never ever encountered a problem with them - the cash has always been spewed out instantaneously in my experience.

PBA

Since the advent of chip & PIN in the UK, cash withdrawals overseas have been a major source of fraudulent transactions, as fraudsters will copy someone's details over here then email them abroad where they can be used without the need for a chip. You may have advised the bank you were going, but if you didn't leave a contact number for them to reach you on they were quite right to restrict withdrawals if they couldn't verify they were being made by you.

reserved

PBA wrote: »

You may have advised the bank you were going, but if you didn't leave a contact number for them to reach you on they were quite right to restrict withdrawals if they couldn't verify they were being made by you.

I did give them my mobile number and also rang them from there but with no success.

It was a Visa debit card that I was trying to use!

reserved

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I think the same could happen with any bank. Even if you have forewarned them of your visit, they won't necessarily allow transactions.

People I spoke to out there with other banks weren't having the same problems!