Beware Travellers....

togster

Don't know if this is the correct forum but please move if not...
I am working in Sweden at the moment. Left ireland on 24 may with 2000 euro in my bank account to last me a month untill i get paid on the 25 of this month.
I have an account with a major irish bank and an ATM card with facility to use it oversees. I have an overdraft facility of 200 euro.
Today i get a phone call from this bank to inform me i am now 800 euro overdrawn.
Anyone that has used your ATM card abroad may know that you do not recieve a reciept after withdrawing money indicating how much you have left in your account.
Fast forward to last thursday. And i proceed to empty my account so i know how much money i have left in my account. I get out 800 euro and the machine stops giving me money so i persume i have reached my overdraft.
Everything is ok i now have 800 euro to live on or so i think.
It turns out that when your abroad this overdraft facility does not work and you can apparently withdraw as much as you want.

I had a heated conversation today with a member of the bank where i was informed that it is in the fine print of the contract you sign with the bank.
Fair enough. I never read that anyway. I will in future.
What annoyed me however was that when i informed the bank official that i had used this technique before to determine how much i had left in my account i was informed that "if i had a euro for every backpacker in australia who used that excuse id be a rich man". So apparently this has happened to other people before and no effort has been made by this bank to inform people attending to travel abroad that this could happen.
So travellers beware....

Vinnie K

Do they not have internet banking where you can check your balance?

workaccount

Perhaps you should change the title to
"beware people that havent a clue how to look after their personal finances."

You certainly shouldnt expect the bank to.

togster

workaccount wrote:

Perhaps you should change the title to
"beware people that havent a clue how to look after their personal finances."

You certainly shouldnt expect the bank to.

work for a bank do you?? hmmmm....

togster

i simply posted for people like me who dont know much about how this sort of thing works. And by the sound of what the guy said it wasn't that uncommon a thing.

mickoneill30

That's a nifty way to check how much money is in your account.
Keep withdrawing until it stops. If only there was some kind of phone or internet banking system. Nah, it'd never catch on.

togster

mickoneill30 wrote:

That's a nifty way to check how much money is in your account.
Keep withdrawing until it stops. If only there was some kind of phone or internet banking system. Nah, it'd never catch on.

Can someone close this thread please. i didn't post here to get made little of.
Its happened to other people before. So was just pointing that out. I actually stated that i should have read the fine print. So mickonneill back on your high horse.....

RuggieBear

more traveller bashing...huh?

pow wow

I think the OP has a valid point. If you have no way of checking how much is in the account you'd assume your ATM card will just stop working. At home your ATM card certainly won't let you overdraw yourself by 800 quid so why should it happen overseas?

If you go to your branch when you get home they may agree to waive the fees or interest on it.

digitally-yours

I think internet banking is fairly streight forward

Plus i believe u can keep record of your balance every week

I dont think its bank duty to tell people.They have offered services which u can avail to check ur balance.

digitally-yours

ellscurr wrote:

I think the OP has a valid point. If you have no way of checking how much is in the account you'd assume your ATM card will just stop working. At home your ATM card certainly won't let you overdraw yourself by 800 quid so why should it happen overseas?

If you go to your branch when you get home they may agree to waive the fees or interest on it.

Beacuse transactions take time
you are widthdrawing money in foreign currency and those transactions take time to Hit your account and before they hit your account you can withdraw money because they dont know you are going over limit

as the transaction is cross bank

there is a buffer of 24 or 48 hours before your balance is adjusted

If you go london and check ur balance on any ATM it will show u ur exact balance but in POUNDS so people can easily mistake values

You just need to be aware of how this all system works

Being an accountant helps

BuffyBot

If you can't look after your own financial life, I'm not sure what sympathy you're looking for.

Moral of this story - never make assumptions and do research before hand.