I am so sorry - Ive just seen a similar thread about 12 below me!!!

Sorry mods, please feel free to move my post to there

morning tootsie, must admit we haven't taken travellers cheques for a few years, we normally take sterling and change to Euros as when we need them.

We take the debit card for emergency cash if needed, when we have had to use it it's been fine, we take the credit card for the obligatory jewelery purchase for my dearest and never had a problem.

We notified both the bank and credit card co once, and they didn't really seem that bothered.

hope it goes well for your jollies, we're off on Saturday if we encounter any probs I'll let you know..

I live abroad but have an english bank account, the bank are of course aware of where I live and I withdraw cash at times from a local ATM. Just once the machine refused my card and when I rang the bank they said that my request for cash had been refused because the transaction was unusual.....so much for informing the bank. But having said that I travel to many far flung places around the globe and my card has never other than this one time been refused.
It's probably safest to inform the bank of your travel plans but I do understand that this is not totally foolproof as I have read reports recently of people on holiday having their cards refused despite having informed the banks of their plans. I have never informed my bank, but I carry more than one debit card so I am still able to obtain cash if one was to be refused.
Maybe some travellers cheques for peace of mind would be the answer or I believe there is some sort of pre-paid travel cash card that you can purchase from the Post Office or certain travel agents. Someone else posting on this forum may have details of this card.

Thanks Boaz and Judith.

Years ago we always took all of our holiday budget by Travellers cheques - one year we were glad as they were stolen and re-imbursed within a day for us.

But over the last 5 years we just used our debit card as and when we needed funds.

That card that you can buy from the Post Office sounds good - will check that out.

Are Travellers cheques "old fashioned" now though - paying a percentage when you buy them and when you cash them - are you not losing some of your holiday dosh?

The article on GMTV seemed to be saying that banks have really tightened up on "unusual" purchases/spending patterns and the debit/credit card could easly be frozen. I only have one debit and one credit card so would be in a right pickle on holiday if it got frozen!

Tootsie
I think most people do regard Travellers Cheques as old fashioned, I personally haven't used them in years, but hey if they make you feel more secure go ahead.
I bank with Halifax and they only charge commission on sterling TC's and also buy back without commission. I see from another post that you are going to Majorca on holiday so you could buy Euro TC's
I have no idea though if you are charged commission when you change them abroad.
Judith

I assume this thread mainly refers to debit cards but it is relevant to credit card use too. Before I went abroad 2 months ago I informed the Halifax Bank that I may use my credit card abroad. I was surprised when they said, "OK we will remove the block off it for use at this specific resort at the dates you are there." The implication is that it was automatically blocked for use abroad and had i not rung them, it would have been blocked for use outside the UK.

A recent article in The Mail confirms the problems with tightened bank security.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/savings-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=488689&in_page_id=7

I did read about this yesterday and there advice was to make sure you give your bank a mobil number they can contact you on should they need to and also make sure you take a 24 hour phone number for your bank so you can call them straightaway if they do block your card.

I am going to take more than one card so that if one gets blocked I can still use another until it is sorted.

Hi Frank and Yedi.

Yes the article was about Credit cards also - but my issue was really debit cards - when I tried to hire the car thankfully the Abbey (my bank) had my husbands mobile number and as we were negotiating at the desk (after me trying to ring them twice)..........he was able to go through a step by step process to authorise the payment - so thankfully it was okay on that occasion. And as we will have his mobile while abroad hopefully the same thing should happen if there is a problem - but its embarrassing and it took at least 10 minutes while others were queuing and tutting behind us!

I just wanted to see if others had heard anything or been in this position and what they did - and also just to make other members aware that just because they TELL their banks that they will be abroad it doesnt mean they will take notice all the time!

Good advice about keeping the mobile on 24 hours and ensuring that the bank have it.

I thought I may have a problem regarding my Visa credit card on our recent holiday. I phoned the card services and told them we were going to Cape Verde and gave them the dates to which the guy replied "Your card will probably be blocked if you use it abroad" Just a minute I said thats why I am ringing I said Reply "I have made a note but it may still be blocked"
What the hells going on I say this is a THOMAS COOK credit card surely it is reasonable to assume people with these cards are likely to travel!!!! if it is blocked I will be cancelling.
Fortunately we didnt need to use the card, I realise that security needs tightening but surely common sense needs to prevail. Its a waste of time trying to discuss anything with a call centre who can only follow the garbage on their computer script.
Perhaps its all a ploy to get us to take out the new Pay in Advance cards.

Just rang my c card supplier, they were very helpful and took note of dates and a mobile phone number, and confirmed that I won't be blocked.

she said that they couldn't block it just in the Jewellers, unfortunately it's all or nothing..

Just a minute I said thats why I am ringing I said Reply "I have made a note but it may still be blocked"
What the hells going on I say this is a THOMAS COOK credit card surely it is reasonable to assume people with these cards are likely to travel!!!! if it is blocked I will be cancelling.
Fortunately we didnt need to use the card, I realise that security needs tightening but surely common sense needs to prevail. Its a waste of time trying to discuss anything with a call centre who can only follow the garbage on their computer script.
Perhaps its all a ploy to get us to take out the new Pay in Advance cards.

Thats exactly my point though Nick - thank goodness you didnt need to use it - but if you had you might have been in a right pickle!

Im going out at lunchtime to investigate this prepaid card - the only thing is with the debit card both my husband and I have one each - if one is lost then you still have the other - I wonder if you can do the same with the prepaid one?

Aw poor Boaz - looks like you cant get out of buying something sparkly again this year

well I've now been in touch with my bank Nat West, they have made a note on their system but offer no gaurantee that my debit card won't be blocked. If this does happen I've to go through the rigmarole of phoning them to let them know what I've let them know today. They are also not interested in taking a mobile number.

Gawd Boaz see thats what I mean!!!

You are being responsible and telling them you are going and need to use your card - they are saying they "cant guarantee" it wont be blocked!!!

I dont like the sound of it to be honest - I thought the whole point of the card was for easy access to your funds on holiday.

I do totally get the "security" points but this seems to be a bit arbitrary really.

Why cant they unblock it if you give them the information on where you are going and when?

Also refusing me in Glasgow was a bit OTT also.........

I work in a bank , we have a form that we can e-mail away to a department that should ensure that your card works ok .To be honest very few of our customers ask us to send the notification away and indeed I did not register my own card and withdrew some cash without problems in Portugal.
The only time I have come across customers who have had problems was when they tried to use cards in Thailand and this was just after the security blocks were tightened up a couple of years ago.
It really seems to be pretty hit and miss between the banks .
We tend to take local currency , credit card and leave some cash in a debit card for emergency use, credit card and debit card are from different organisations .
I really think that you should spread your options out for a few reasons

If your card is blocked it can take 24 hours to get things back to normal- have another option

Relying on one card is not a great idea as machine failure at an atm can cause your card to be withheld and you probably will not be able to get that card back - so keep your options open

Are Travellers cheques "old fashioned" now though - paying a percentage when you buy them and when you cash them - are you not losing some of your holiday dosh?

Call me old fashioned, but considering where I travel these days, I will be sticking with Travellers Cheques.
I pay no commission on buying them and I pay no commission on exchanging them, and while I may get a slightly lower rate than the interbanking or visa rate, unless you are exchanging millions, it is negligible.

They are insured and as long as you keep the numbers separate from the actual cheques, they will be replaced within 24 hours, also without your passport and forging the signature, they are useless to anybody else.
If you just take hard cash and put it in the hotel safe and it gets broken into, you'll find out a hard lesson that most hotel safes are only insured for a few hundred pounds.

I personally see no difference in walking to find an ATM and walking to find an exchange place in the resort.
With the astronomical amount of money being lost due to identity theft and cloning of cards, I think in time, we all may go back to using paper money and TC's....laugh you may at this idea and think "no way", but, don't be so sure because this electronic plastic age does have several pitfalls.

Within the last year I've had my Mastercard blocked twice because it had been cloned twice (within months of each time), the first time I knew anything about it was when I was trying to book a Thomson flight to Alicante, and I had the fr**d squad phoning me many months later when a transaction was put on the second new card, which again had nothing to do with me"¦.so, I can't fault them for their security levels.

My husband is the lead card holder and we both have different card numbers for the same account, and they'd blocked his card too, so, if I'd never tried to book that Thomson flight for a future holiday (ten months in the future) then I wouldn't have known the card had been blocked........and if we'd taken either of the cards abroad a month later to use during a holiday in Benidorm and tried to use it, we would have been up the creek without a paddle.

Sanji

Because we were visiting Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore earlier this year we phoned Nationwide informing them of our travel arrangements, etc., even going as far as telling them which cities we would be visiting. All went well until 3 weeks into the trip when we had made a few purchases with the credit card at the airport in Alice Springs and then flew to Perth where we were picking up a car. It was at this point that my husband's card was refused so I offered them mine, but as I have a different account to him and I offered that card and not the joint one my card was accepted and we just assumed it was 'one of those things'. When we arrived in our hotel in Margaret River we had a meal in the hotel and when we went to pay both our cards (joint account) were refused. We immediately contacted Nationwide, explained the situation and they said the problem had been caused simply by the fact that one transaction at breakfast time had been in Alice Springs and the next one at lunch time in Perth several hours flight away. This was despite our telling them we would be travelling around Australia! Nationwide accepted what we were saying and told us to give them 5 minutes and they would remove the block - which they did and we were able to go and pay the restaurant bill! We had no further trouble, and whilst I fully understand they have to be careful (don't want anyone other than us using our money!) we did wonder if there had been any point in telling them we were travelling around.
Due to visit Oz again in November so hope same thing doesn't happen again. We do always make sure that we have another debit/credit card with us and if the Nationwide card was to be blocked completely at least we will still have access to funds.

Rosalyn

Had to add a further post, this time completely in favour of the banks. The same evening our card was frozen our friends with whom we were travelling checked their account on-line ( we had taken netbooks with us) only to find that someone had accessed their account and withdrawn in two actions over £4,000! They immediately contacted Abbey, who following a few questions returned the money to their account and then blocked it whilst investigations took place.
Because our friends had taken other debit/credit cards they had no problems with accessing money for the rest of the holiday. At least we knew the bank was on the ball.

Thank you everyone for your posts on this.

After conversation with my husband last night he is convinced that he wants to buy travellers cheques, and after reading all of the posts here Im inclined to agree with him!

Tootsie,

If you aren't going away in the next few weeks, why not consider opening a
Nationwide Flex account and use their debit card for your holidays?

It's a subject that's been covered on here before, but a quick recap:-

You can use it at the ATM's abroad,
If being used within Europe NO charges are raised by Nationwide.
You get a better rate of exchange than any bank/bureau de change.

I opened such an account just to use for our holidays, and told Nationwide that.
In fact, the no fees and great rate are one of the things they advertise about the
account/debit card and so they EXPECT it to be used abroad.

I didn't have to agree to put regular credits into the account, or X amount of funds
each month. It's ideal.

On the subject of travellers cheques, years ago we used to use them all the time.
We used to buy them in sterling, for which there was a charge, but no charges
were raised when we cashed them at a bank/bureau de change.
(But this is dependant on the bank/bureau de change you use, as some do.)

Also, with them being sterling, on the rare occasions we had any left over after our
holidays, we could pay them straight back into our bank account just the same as
you would any other cheque deposit.

Hope this is of some help.