Hi everyone. Well Im finally home from my wonderful if not exhausting Florida trip with my son and The wife Ange. I will post details of the holiday later, but first a word (or several) of warning to anyone who thinks their credit card is a guarantee of financial security in a foreign country. Approximately 3 weeks before I left for the USA, I telephoned Lloyds TSB regarding my Visa/MasterCard credit card that I hold with them. I provided them with the exact dates that I would be away and asked for assurance that everything would be ok with the card as I would be travelling alone for part of the time and intended to do Xmas shopping and buy gifts for people who had helped me both practically and emotionally since Mikes death last year. I had several thousand pounds of available to spend and never missed any payments. I was assured by Lloyds/TSB that everything was fine and I could enjoy my holiday with all finances taken care of. All went well for the first week at Disney and I used my card with confidence but didnt spend much, intending to splash out a bit more the second week of the holiday. On the Wednesday of the second week Dave, Ange and myself spent a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa, where I discovered a delightful little gift shop and duly bought several presents for my nearest and dearest, or at least I tried to! My Lloyds/TSB card was declined 3 times for no specific reason. Now, heres the fun way to spend an afternoon in blistering hot temperatures in Florida! Try phoning the free phone number on the back of the declined credit card with a borrowed mobile phone (Davids) and all the attendant sounds of an American theme park as an added distraction! When I finally got through to the correct person and had gone through the usual security checks, I was put on hold for approximately 10 minutes only to be told that there was nothing wrong with my card! (I could have told them that!) However, just occasionally The USA cannot read the three digit security numbers on the back of British issued cards. This was apparently my problem. What was the solution I asked? Well, actually there was no solution! Nothing could be done, other than ask the shops to process the transaction manually. They wont! and Im damn sure that the helpline know that. I tried to use my card on subsequent days in various locations, each time being declined. I again telephoned the helpline- bloody useless!! The only advice I was offered was to keep trying! Why, when we both knew that this was a wasted exercise!. Believe me, its not much use to me to be told that my card would function properly once I was back in the UK. I was in the USA for Gods sake where plastic rules supreme! The sad end to this sorry tale of woe is that no one has the gifts I so wanted to give them and I spent the last 5 days of my holiday eyeing out the few dollars I had remaining. Dave and Ange helped out obviously, but lord knows what I would have done had I been truly alone! Scary stuff!! Ironically, as a professional actress, I did the Mastercard tv advert for them in South Africa in 1999 where my credit card was stolen from my room! I think its cash for me from now on. Watch this space - Im going to complain forcibly to Lloyds/TSB. Im not going down without a fight!! Xxxxxx
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 00:59:20 +0000
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