Today was supposed to be an easy day. Catch a noon flight to Santiago, find the hostel, orient ourselves and make some plans for the next couple of days here.
We planned to leave at 10a for the airport. At 9:15a, we were packed, had eaten breakfast, and were just winding down the stay over coffee. I had one errand to run: cash up to pay the hostel bill (there’s a 10% surcharge for using a credit card). I headed out a few blocks to a cash machine we’d used a couple of times, and it promptly ate my card. Nothing. It just sucked it in, just out of reach, but kept blinking away its happy greeting to insert a card. Nothing would make it come back. And it’s a Saturday, so banks are closed until Monday.
I raced back to the hostel and asked if there was anyone they could call to get the card out. Or, could you give me a screwdriver (or even better, a crowbar)? Then I called the number on the back of my credit card (the card is a Visa from Bank of America; my checking account is also with B of A). I explained the situation and asked how I could get a cash advance with the credit card. (I assumed I could do this at an ATM, but I don’t know the PIN for the card.)
The woman took the time to scold me for not alerting them that I was travelling in a foreign country, and asked how long I would be gone. Really? Then, she advised me that they can only mail PINs. Can you email one? No. Is there any way I can get cash with this card? No. REALLY? I tried to stay calm, but definitely stressed the urgency of the situation and asked to speak to a supervisor. Five minutes on hold. The supervisor was only helpful enough to tell me to call 1-800-VISA-911.
I called. The first prompt told me to call the international number, or I would be charged a bunch for the call. I guess it might have been nice to either be told the international number by the supervisor, or, to include the international number to call IN YOUR MESSAGE TO USE IT!
We paid the hostel by credit card and bolted for the airport. The hostel was really no help either — they didn’t call anyone about the lost card (they couldn’t even track down a phone number for the bank two blocks away!). And they have the lousiest pillows ever, but that’s another story…
We checked in for our flight, cleared security (though not without losing our new sacacorcho!), and got to the boarding area about 45 minutes ahead of the flight. I called B of A again realizing that I should cancel the debit card. I got someone much more helpful who took care of that, and suggested that my best bet if I could make it to Monday was to go to a bank in Santiago, get wire number information, then log in to my checking account and wire myself funds. She also gave me the international Visa 911 number. She was even nice enough to tell me that they were very difficult to work with! The honesty was refreshing.
I called Visa 911 and explained the situation. There was much confusion. They just couldn’t understand that I had lost a debit card, and was requesting emergency cash through the credit card. They kept saying “Please confirm that you have lost your card and we will deactivate it and send you a new one.” NO! PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS! I’ve already lost one card, please don’t cancel this one. (We have a Visa for Leena as well, but really, I don’t want to be down to just one option.) After about four tries explaining this (where it still was not clear how I would get this “emergency cash”) I gave up.
OK, now the better news. Chile seems much more credit card friendly. And we have a little over 200 bucks to get through until Monday, so we should be fine. But we will need the wire transfer to work in a day – we fly out really early Tuesday so we wouldn’t be here long enough to wait until then.
And the good news: the empanadas are huge here, and the beers are cold and tasty. More soon!