Ewan.net

In today’s always-on environment, I’ve actually swapped from using HSBC and NatWest to using a cheap as chips Lloyds Travel Money Card.

People often look at me when I bring out this tattered ‘Pay As You Go’ Visa Debit Card to pay for stuff. It’s always nice flashing good looking pieces of plastic, but when the infrastructure that underpins it is rubbish or stupidly designed for a 1980s world, that becomes irrelevant.

HSBC’s systems have a problem with me. They’re set to ULTRA HIGH when it comes to fraud.

Despite phoning the polite HSBC call-centre Indians and explaining that I’m going to be in the States at such-and-such a time — and DESPITE the agents nodding away assuring me, the MOMENT I get to America… BOOM. No sodding credit card.

Nothing works.

Any credit card machine that does an authorisation to the HSBC Visa Europe machine, gets an automatic F**K OFF.

Which has, in the past, made me look like a total idiot in all kinds of situations, most notably trying to check-in to a fully booked hotel in Las Vegas where they demanded the full balance up front (or they’d give the room to somebody else).

I understand that repeatedly hitting my credit card for $8,000 isn’t a good way to treat a computer system already positively petrified at the thought of fraud — but it also happens — GUARANTEED — whenever I want to buy anything abroad. A bottle of water, a magazine, a $10 or €10 meal… anything.

It’s PERFECTLY fine if I call up.

If I phone HSBC and go through the 8 minute RIGMAROLE of speaking to an operator and then being transferred to his mate in fraud … blah de blah… finally they lift the bar for that transaction. Brilliant. But by that time I’ll have spent £24 on the phone call.

Then when I try and use the card once more… boom. Same problem.

When I complain I get the same bullshit.

The worst possible situation, however, is when I have to phone my wife and use her sodding credit cards. Or WORSE, my parents. How bad is that? It’s ridiculous. I’ve had to resort to this a few times when I’ve tried to call HSBC and they’ve been closed.

CLOSED?

What kind of bank — nowadays — is ‘closed’? A shit bank. This is ridiculously poor service, especially when I’m traversing the continents on a regular basis.

I need always-on service.

I’ve spoken to two banks. A private bank and the private-bank arm of NatWest. I’ve got the NatWest account setup but I haven’t had time to swap yet.

So meantime, my fix is this: A flimsy looking Visa Debit ‘travel money card‘ from Lloyds TSB.

I actually had to pay $9,000 for my apartment rental in San Francisco this way. Although I had to do it in £3k amounts. At least it worked. 100%. All the time.

The only time I’ve ever had a problem is when I changed address and the Lloyds TSB system hasn’t been updated with my new postcode.

But you know what? These guys are available 24-7. It’s about three rings to a guy or a girl at a call centre somewhere in the UK.

You can top-up online with their form — just type in your bank card details and woosh, you’re loaded — and I mean ‘woosh’. I’ve literally sat on my laptop at a restaurant in University Avenue, Palo Alto, replenished my empty Travel Money Card with £500 and paid for my meal 20 seconds later. Genius.

You can also phone them and top up the old way. Useful if your laptop is out of battery. Or you didn’t bring it with you.

There are some charges. 2.75% currency conversion charge when you withdraw cash or pay. Fair enough.

There’s also a $2.50 cash withdrawl fee. Again, fair enough.

You can’t load money more than three times a day. Again, that works.

And during the lifetime of the card, you can’t put more than £18k on it, apparently. Although I’m SURE I must have gone over this limit … I MUST have, when I think about how much I’ve spent on it.

Anyway, it’s genius. Absolute genius. Because in an always-on world, when my Bank is asleep, I still need to be able to transact business. I find it insane that this is my preferred ‘guaranteed’ method of payment over and above my HSBC Gold Card.

If you haven’t got one of these Travel Money Cards (or something similar) as a back-up, I strongly recommend one.

Meanwhile, I do recognise the value of a fraud detection system. But, when *every* single transaction I make abroad is deemed fraud… rubbish.

I should be a NatWest customer soon. That should hopefully be a bit better.