![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The usefulness of paranoia
Jul. 27th, 2017 02:55 pmParanoia has its uses. For a while now I've been worried that I would have problems with my Visa card overseas, as I did last time I travelled. This time I knew there'd been a problem because I hadn't figured out that there was a cap on what I could withdraw in a day. I thought I'd solved it, but was still worried, so decided to take the huge step of contacting the hotel's sales centre in Finland and getting them to take their money early.
Turns out my only option so close to the date was to ring them up. As a lifelong telephobic, few things are more terrifying. But not as terrifying as the possibility of trouble at the other end after no sleep for 24 hours. So now I have talked to Finland and heard a tri-lingual phone message [Finnish/English/Swedish], with directions so I knew I'd be talking to an English speaker. I painstakingly gave the details of the card and she had a go. Transaction declined. Right, so I then have to talk to my bank. Turns out that the transaction limit I see in Internet banking and the limit on the card as a debit card are not the same thing. Okay, probably this is basic to some folks, but not to this rodent.
The guy at call centre says he can lift the limit but only for half an hour; something to do with being a call centre and not the bank. No problem! Back to Finland, where I talk to a second operator and am plunged into wild confusion when she does not immediately recognise the contact number as one of theirs. [No idea. First person had no trouble]. I again painstakingly explained. Fortunately operator 2 finds the notes of operator 1 and all is clarified. The transaction is completed and I sit back, feeling a strong wish for something alcoholic and a bit of a lie down.
I think I'll be okay now, but I would not have been, had I ignored the feeling that I really had to do this. In many ways I'm sorry we're beyond the era of travellers' cheques. They were easy to get, more secure than cash and useful.
Turns out my only option so close to the date was to ring them up. As a lifelong telephobic, few things are more terrifying. But not as terrifying as the possibility of trouble at the other end after no sleep for 24 hours. So now I have talked to Finland and heard a tri-lingual phone message [Finnish/English/Swedish], with directions so I knew I'd be talking to an English speaker. I painstakingly gave the details of the card and she had a go. Transaction declined. Right, so I then have to talk to my bank. Turns out that the transaction limit I see in Internet banking and the limit on the card as a debit card are not the same thing. Okay, probably this is basic to some folks, but not to this rodent.
The guy at call centre says he can lift the limit but only for half an hour; something to do with being a call centre and not the bank. No problem! Back to Finland, where I talk to a second operator and am plunged into wild confusion when she does not immediately recognise the contact number as one of theirs. [No idea. First person had no trouble]. I again painstakingly explained. Fortunately operator 2 finds the notes of operator 1 and all is clarified. The transaction is completed and I sit back, feeling a strong wish for something alcoholic and a bit of a lie down.
I think I'll be okay now, but I would not have been, had I ignored the feeling that I really had to do this. In many ways I'm sorry we're beyond the era of travellers' cheques. They were easy to get, more secure than cash and useful.