That
is the main advantage.

I've lost track of the times their cock-ups have left me high and dry. Now I hear about people who have been fucked over by them and think "I used to be like that"

For e.g., my mother, who went to Australia for her mother's 100th birthday last year - she informed the bank she was going, and indeed where she was staying etc.... a tel. number for the hotel and her mobile number.

So, you can imagine her dismay when after 4 days of being there, her cash-card no longer worked. It didn't work for the next 19 days either, basically stopping her from paying for her hire car and stopping her from driving to Melbourne to see her old school mates on the same trip.

If, as they claim, it was to protect her as there was 'unusual activity' on her account (unusual as in the card was being used in Australia, as she'd informed them it would be), then why did they just not telephone her to verify the activity? Why did it take 19 days after considerable cost (in phone calls from my mum to the bank) to get her card reinstated?

So, yet again, the banks have succeeded in holding on to someone elses money and fuck the consequences of their actions.

Nice.

So, given a choice of using these inadequate and inefficient 'service providers' and having ready cash, I'd opt for the cash every time.
(dchurch bah, Sat 6 Mar 2010, 18:38, 1 reply)

^^^ similar has happened to me
except someone was using my card in another country - the bank didn't think to cancel it because of the 'unusual activity' of my card being used in TWO countries at the same time.

It was my emergency creddy card, and because I was in NZ and had the sum total of 14 days to return the signed declaration that I HADN'T spent several hundred pounds in the UK (having been spending NZD for the last year or so), well, do the maths.
Try sending something round the world twice in 14 days? Unless I wanted to pay for courier to door as well?!
As it was, I spent enough trying to get this sorted out on overseas phone calls, but all came good in the end (but complete pain in the arse)

Not the first time my card has been buggered up when travelling either
(maggotriddendirtbox fast, feral and sharp as a tack since, Sun 7 Mar 2010, 6:33, closed)

Scummers
In my mothers case, I've started legal proceedings against them for the cost of a return flight. A once in a lifetime trip ruined by their incompetence - it was over Christmas/New Year, so I assume the minimum wages scrotes at the bank couldn't be arsed to phone her, or indeed, sort it out once they were notified.

Everyone should be accountable for their actions, and as such, morally - if not legally - they owe her a trip to see her old school friends.
(dchurch bah, Sun 7 Mar 2010, 9:13, closed)