I know a lot of your readers believe that local, mom and pop operations are the way to go — that big corporate companies are universally evil and local is almost always filled with nice, smiling workers who are far superior to their sell-out counter-parts. I’m here today to show you that, at least in banking, size doesn’t matter.Last year, my (then) fiance (now husband) and I eloped to Las Vegas. He is from England, and once he received his fiance visa to enter the US, we had only 90 days to get married and file to adjust his status, so a big or expensive wedding was out of the question. We went to Las Vegas on the cheap, relying solely on my Farmer’s and Mechanics Savings Bank (NJ) debit card to pay for our $200 wedding and $1500 honeymoon for three days. It was quick and cheap, and we promised each other (in addition to the whole love and commitment thing) to save up and come back a year later for a proper honeymoon with nice restaurants, drinks on the beach, massages, and an actual batchelor party for my husband at the burlesque club Forty Deuce…
So we scrimped and saved. We used our FMS debit cards to pay the deposit on the hotel, hold a dinner reservation, make the spa appointment, and pay for our flights. We also got out $500 in cash each, just in case of some emergency (FMS has a policy to only allow 15 swipes of a debit card per business day — including from Friday at 3 PM until Monday at 9 AM, which is a long time when you’re in Vegas).
We weren’t too worried when the very lovely woman at the front desk of our hotel said my husband’s bank card was declined. We’d booked nice rooms and the cost was over $1000, which was larger than the average transaction my husband usually makes, so he whipped out his cell phone and called FMS bank, to give them ID or tell them where we were to remove the account flag or whatever the little problem was.
Quickly his face fell, and my heart sank when he said, “Thank you anyway,” and hung up.
He motioned toward the cash machines and said he was going to try and make a withdraw from what remained of his bank account back in England. “Why?” I asked.
“Because I was just informed that Farmer’s and Mechanics Bank have blocked all financial transactions in the entire city of Las Vegas.”
I couldn’t believe it. He had to have misheard. While he went to the ATM to try and get enough cash that (when combined with our emergency fund) was enough to at least get into our hotel rooms, I phoned the bank customer service number. I advised the girl that my husband and my cards were both not working, and before she asked me for account details, she said “Where are you right now?”
“Las Vegas, Nevada”
“Oh, that’s your problem,” she said. “The entire state is blocked.”
“You blocked the entire state of Nevada?”
“No, the entire state of Las Vegas.”
“Las Vegas isn’t a state; it’s a city.”
“Well, we blocked the state of Las Vegas, Nevada.”
“Okay, look, I’m not going to argue semantics so let me just explain what’s going on here. My husband and I are on our anniversary/second honeymoon trip to Las Vegas. We don’t even have enough cash to check into our hotel room. Is there anyway you can lift the flag on the accounts so we can at least check in? I’ll answer whatever questions you need.”
“No. The entire state is blocked.”
“The entire ‘state’ of Las Vegas.”
“Right.”
“And you can’t unblock it?”
“No, there’s too much fraud. The STAR network blocked it.”
“The STAR network blocked the entire city of Las Vegas.”
“The entire state.”
“…of Las Vegas?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Months ago. It’s on our website.”
“I’ve used the website in the last few months. It’s not on there.”
“Well, the last few weeks, at least.”
“I still haven’t seen it.”
“Well, it’s there. The STAR network is blocking all debit card transactions in Las Vegas”
“Well, I’ve seen plenty of people using other debit cards here, and we’re not trying to withdraw money, we’re trying to use the cards as credit cards, so I imagine this is a FMS bank problem.”
“It’s a FRAUD problem,” said the woman, getting irate. “We’re trying to prevent FRAUD, MA’AM.”
“Alright, well, can you wire us some money to the casino from our accounts? As soon as my husband gets back from the ATM, he’ll–”
“No, it can’t be done!”
“Can I speak to a manager?”
“They can’t do anything for you.”
“I’d still like to speak to one.”
After a few minutes on hold, someone else picked up the phone. She declined to give her name.
“Hello, I’m stuck in Las Vegas,”
“Yes, I know.”
“Is there any way you can wire money to a Western Union or to the Casino cashier?”
“No. As our CSR tried to explain to you, ma’am, we’ve experienced a lot of FRAUD from Las Vegas, so we no longer do any transactions within that state.”
“Well, all of my money is in my bank account. All of my husband’s money is in his.”
“Get someone else to wire you money.”
“All of my relatives also have FMS bank accounts, so that won’t be a very good solution, now will it?”
Now, at this point, most CSRs, and definitely any management worth their title would go “Oh crap, that’s two people’s accounts we could lose over this, plus their relatives, who I’m sure they’ll tell about this. We’d better do something fast! These kids are stranded 3000 miles away from home with no funds.”
Instead, she said, “Well, maybe you ought to use your credit cards. That’s what we’ve advised our other clients in this position to do.”
My face, according to my husband, was bright red at this moment as I lost my temper and yelled, “You know, some people don’t *want* to actively be in debt. I only have a $300 limit on my one credit card because I pay my balance in full every month and I want to keep it that way.”
“That’s not our problem, now is it?”
I ran through another list of options: sending us AmEx gift cards for the amounts in our accounts (a product the bank offers) or sending us Traveler’s Checks (overnight, obviously) in those amounts. The woman scoffed at both of those like I was asking for the world.
“Maybe you should just rent a car and leave the state.”
“…the state of Las Vegas?”
“Yes.”
Here I paused, to regain composure.
“Don’t you think you should have told someone about this?”
“It’s on the website.”
I asked the clerk at the desk for internet access, and she kindly showed me to the business lounge and waived the fee to use it. I pulled up the website. (A screen cap taken today , over a week later, is attached to this email.)
“I don’t see where it says FMS bank has blocked all transactions within the CITY of Las Vegas.”
“Well, it’s posted in the bank branches.”
“That’s really funny, because my husband and I deposited vacation money in the bank LAST NIGHT, there were no signs in the branch at all.”
“Well, it’s not our fault. This only happened a week ago.”
“A week ago, so much fraud occurred all at once that you shut down the entire city of Las Vegas via the STAR= network? And you couldn’t be bothered informing your customers via email or letter about this, even though you routinely send letters via email and in our bank statements alerting us to current phishing schemes we are supposed to be aware of?”
“Ma’am, we are trying to prevent FRAUD.”
“And you’ve stranded me in Las Vegas with not even enough money to check into my hotel room? What am I supposed to do for this week?”
“Maybe you should carry more cash when you travel,” she said, scolding me like some foolish child.
“You, a bank representative, are really telling your customers to carry their entire vacation funds in cash because you can’t work up a decent system to prevent fraud. Listen, I worked for Barclay’s bank and Barclaycard for a year, and the standard we followed for dealing with this–”
“THERE IS NO INDUSTRY STANDARD IN BANKING,” she interrupted.
I paused, absolutely taken aback. “Listen, if you don’t want to lose a least myself and my husband as customers, not to mention my extended family, I suggest you find a solution to this problem of stranding customers on vacation with NO FUNDS and NO SOLUTION to YOUR MISTAKE.”
“We didn’t make any mistakes, ma’am. We’re PREVENTING FRAUD.”
This is where I hung up.
The semi-happy ending to this story is that we were able to call my credit card company (HSBC) and have them increase my limit by *only* $100 to allow the car rental company in the hotel to hold $350 on my card for the rental. We then drove to Boulder City, NV and were able to get $500 out each — the maximum amount for the day. Because it was a Friday, and we only had the car for one day, we were unable to get any more from our bank accounts for the rest of the trip and had to call my in laws in England. They put money in my husband’s account there, which we were able to draw from on the fourth day of our trip, thus ruining the first three days where we scrimped and once again ate most of our meals at the buffet.
FMS Bank refuses to apologize for essentially ruining the first three days of our long-awaited vacation nor will they offer any sort of incentive for my husband or I to remain with them. As far as they’re concerned preventing “fraud” (which I imagine is little old ladies losing their pensions at the slots and time shares) is more important than not only good customer service, but preventing customers from being stranded with no access to funds for an indefinite period of time.
-Mary
We checked the FMS site and couldn’t find a notice about either the city or state of Las Vegas being blocked. Glad everything worked out . FMS certainly showed some poor customer service, and geography, skills, and we hope you’ve moved your money elsewhere.
But while we admire the tenacity with which you protect yourself from getting into debt, and gnash our teeth at FMS, that kind of situation might call for being less credit card allergic. You’ve already saved the money, why not bump up the limit on the credit card you had enough to cover and reduce it after the trip? Or, use traveler’s checks. Either way, access to finances can be rather important while traveling, so unless you’re an excellent dish washer, it’s a good idea to carry multiple forms of payment.
(Photo: Getty)
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@lizzybee: Rant: What the hell is up with all of this “fraud protection” crap? The banks and credit cards think they can get away with murder, doing absolutely asinine things “because of fraud.”
____________________________________
This is the same line of bullshit the TSA uses to inspect your orifices for contraband liquid – “for security reasons.”
And, FWIW, I believe there are two idiots in the same place who would call Las Vegas a state. There are a lot of idiots out there.
That was a shitty thing to do to customer, and the identity theft issue does carry some weight.
However the idiots at the ABA have made their bed, many times over, and now they squeal like pigs about fraud.
I can’t help but wonder out loud about their debit cards though. If they have a VISA or Mastercard logo, that qualifies them for emergency cash from yourr account, and they are set up for this. I found out the hard way when I got my wallet lifted just before boarding a plane for the Cayman Islands. They really came through.
Has this woman previously had credit card debt issues or something that she can’t control herself if her limit is higher? I have a $14K limit on my oldest credit care, but that doesn’t mean I have to rack up $14K in debt.
Traveler’s checks are not taken by that many businesses anymore because they can be forged like any other check.
I feel for this couple. I hope to god you, your husband, and your extended family all left the bank and used this as the reason why.
As far as all the “you should have used credit/you should have a higher limit/etc.” BS, I’m certainly floored by comments like this on the Consumerist. Especially after so many of said commenters advocating this, are usually from the “zOMG!!1! Credit cardz r evil!” crowd. You people do realize that not EVERYONE walks around with multiple credit cards maxing out @ $1000+ everywhere right? Not everyone wants the debt, or hassle, or possible theft of said credit….
As someone that has worked in the Financial services industry (FRAUD detection) let me shed some light. As arsine as it sounds if the STAR Network decides to not accept transactions from a certain area of the nation (Las Vegas) because of FRAUD there’s NOTHING the individual bank can do to release funds. Why? Because in this case the acquire (insurer) has decided that the network is responsible stemming the fraudulent transactions and will no longer accept transactions from that network. The bank at that point can no longer take the transaction because they are no longer insured for it. It’s not really your banks fault, but frankly there’s nothing they could have done about it.
Also even though you’re trying to preserve your credit IMHO you should always put things like your room and car rental on your CREDIT card and not your DEBIT card. CREDIT cards work on a different set of rules like you’re only liable for $50/$75 of fraud if you couldn’t prove fraud as well as automatic travel/insurance coverage with the right card.
Last but not least as several readers have pointed out AMEX works on it’s own set of rules, so if you’re able to afford one and travel a lot a AMEX card should always be in your wallet.
Finally I’m no longer in the industry (got tired of the BS of the industry) and this is a fake user. So I’m sorry but I can’t help any of you further.
This was both really funny and very sad at the same time.
Personally, I’m calling Customer Service (1.888.388.9500) today to ask them what the capital of the state of Las Vegas is.
@BugMeNot2: Since the STAR Network lists 25 different atm locations in Las Vegas including a number of banking institutions. With that in mind, it really does sound like the bank blocked the transaction rather than STAR. Furthermore, FMS did have the ability to wire their customers money without involving STAR at all. This really is the bank’s fault.
Also, thanks for the helpful tips on CREDIT vs DEBIT use on vacation.
1) Use regular checks.
2) Conference call with STAR representatives.
3) Screw talking to a manager, speak to a VP.
Is the state of Atlantic City blocked as well?
I’ve never asked my bank or told them where I was going, cause it’s none of their business, and if my card wouldn’t work I’d raise hell with them.
You might want to go ahead and find a new credit card company too, before HSBC becomes “Part 2″ in this sad saga.
No, she shouldnt have to incur credit card debt if she doesn’t want to. Her bank should let her spend her money. People should not have to walk around wondering if their card will work elsewhere in the country.
Frankly, anyone who doesn’t use credit cards because they’re opposed to being in debt just doesn’t understand credit cards. I use credit cards (a Visa and an Amex) every day, and every month I pay off the balance in full. I have zero debt. In fact, I get a 1.5% discount on everything I spend, because I use a credit card. Using credit cards does not equal having credit card debt.
I suppose, in theory, I have credit card debt, in that I “borrow” the money until my bill comes. That’s an interest-free loan, so that’s another small discount, since the money sits in my account for the month, rather than the vendor’s, so I earn interest on it.
Also, because I use credit cards, I can rent a car, check into a hotel, etc., without worry.
Unless you have so little self-control that you really can’t trust yourself with credit cards (i.e. you actually carry a balance at an interest rate higher than the after-tax rate you earn in your savings account), using credit cards is much more fiscally prudent than paying cash.
@lizzybee: That’s very odd, I’m a Citibank customer as well, I travel all around the world on business, I have never once told them where I’m going in advance, and I’ve used Citibank Credit, Debit and even ATM transactions everywhere. Oddly the only time I’ve had “fraud” lockups on my account is when I used my debit card at a gas station three blocks from my house.
I guess I’m just lucky.
While we all want to praise our victim for a cute phone call conversation, this again is something that could have been mitigated. You have to keep a credit card for emergencies such as this one. What would have happened if her car broke down? Or an emergency that required her to get a plane ticket quickly?
You need a credit card to maintain ‘travel agility’. It is a good option if you have the discipline.
@JustAGuy2: That is exactly what I do as well. Keep the money in the bank earning interest until the credit card bill comes and then pay it all off in full. Earning the reward points or the cash back on the way to save money. I don’t spend excessively on the card just because it has a high limit. I count every amount I spend as a debt against my balance in my bank account even though it doesn’t post right away to the account. Takes a little bit more tracking to keep track of it all, but I don’t overspend needlessly anyways so it works out in the end.
I just love the bureaucratic logic that a logical response to fraud is to block *all* use geographically.
Why not take it to the next step? Stop processing *all* transactions, everywhere, and that’s the end of credit/debit fraud!
(Guess I shouldn’t give them any ideas…)
@yg17:
That’s why god invented money belts. Every traveler should have one.
They’re actually one of the best and most convenient banks in the area. Unless you’re travelling to Vegas, apparently
While I’m entirely sympathetic to their plight, as someone who spends an average of 100 room nights/year, I’d like to make a few points:
1. Most hotels and virtually all car rental agencies have notices, either on their websites or at the counter stating that they will not accept debit cards as the (check-in) deposit. That is because they have to estimate your total charge and preauthorize it. For example, a $50/night room at Circus Circus will result in a $100/day preauth to accomodate any room charges that you may incur (toll calls, restaurant/room service charges, spa treatments, etc). The final amount will correct itself when the room or car rental is closed out. This would mean that a 5 night stay would lock up $500 on your debit card, not the $250 you would be expecting. Credit card auths drop off in a few days. Debit card auths generally take much longer.
2. Las Vegas is in a desert. No drinks by the beach unless the big earthquake hits (unless you are talking about the Mandalay Bay wave pool
@Namilia: Um, I was government educated and I’m doing quite well actually.
If you dont know that Las Vegas is a city by the age of 10 there is no amount of higher education in the world that can save you. Just ask some of the MBAs I’ve met.
@lizzybee: Had a similar, but less extreme, citibank incident. I left a conference in San Jose to fly via Los Angeles to vacation in Mexico. Upon returning home, I had a message urging me to call Citibank. A breakfast charge in SJ, a small purchase at LAX, and paying the hotel upon arrival in Mexico — all in the same day (!) — was enough to trigger a flag. I guess air travel is a rarity with their customers. Fortunately they didn’t block any charges. I asked whether notifying them of travel in advance would prevent a repeat and they said yes.
Yah, to be honest, you should do two things when going on vacation, which almost nobody really does:
1) tell your bank that you may be withdrawing large sums in quick succession so that they don’t put a hold on any transactions.
2) pay off your credit card balance immediately, then rack up no more vacation debt than you can pay off when you get home.
@Sathrallin: that’s a very silly way to do things. Banks give you shit interest rates compared to the interest of a credit card bill, and you don’t have to WAIT for the bill to pay it off. Keep a record of what you spent, or better yet get a credit card with an online account. Then pay it off when you get home. Your interest should really not be much.
Also, keeping money in money belts is really dumb if you’re travelling anywhere in the developed world. If plastic gets stolen, you can cancel plastic. You can’t cancel money.
Be sure to send them a link to this article:
customerservice@fmsbank.net
I’m just trying to figure out where they were going to find a beach to have “drinks on the beach” in Las Vegas.
There some ocean I’m not aware of?
But seriously. Gotta love tiny banks and their narrow-minded outlook on the world.
@charmaniac: Actually, because you pay it off every month, you SHOULD use a credit card. It gives you a chance to dispute fraud before it hits your wallett.
My policy is I have 2 cards (one main, one backup, different providers) which I pay in full EVERY MONTH.
This actually results in net savings, as my primary card is a Costco Amex (1-3% cash back)
@Pope John Peeps II:
When I say money belt, I will clarify that I’m talking about a pouch that is attached to you and tucked inside your pants.
Keeping money in a money belt – attached, concealed, close to your body – is certainly smarter than keeping it all in your wallet…or worse, not carrying ANY local currency.
Cancelling your credit cards won’t buy you food, lodging or transportation. You need a reserve of cash and a backup credit card somewhere that cannot be pickpocketed so that if your wallet IS stolen, you have something to work with until you can make alternative arrangements.
Cash is king – accepted everywhere and by all people. It’s your safety net. Keeping some in reserve is worth the risk compared to getting stuck with nothing.
@superlayne: “But dear Zenu, thinking Las Vegas is a state? For the love of Shiva take an effing Geography class.”
I had a friend move to Cali from Vermont and the DMV kept insisting Vermont was a city and they couldn’t honor city drivers licenses, only state licenses. He was like, “What CITY even issues licenses? Is that even legal?”
They went round and round for half an hour about whether Vermont was a state (“I’ve never heard of it, sir.”) before he insisted on seeing the phone book, showed them Vermont, and the supervisor, after a pause, said, “If it’s good enough for Pac Bell, it’s good enough for me.”
(And wasn’t there some congressional office a few months ago that screwed up travel because they didn’t know cities from states?)
@humphrmi: “That’s very odd, I’m a Citibank customer as well, I travel all around the world on business, I have never once told them where I’m going in advance”
Probably BECAUSE you travel frequently. Credit cards flag unusual account activity to lock the account. (And some cards require you to “unlock” international charging before the first time you use them overseas.) Back when I was traveling a great deal, I never had to call my card. Now that I travel abroad only once a year or so, I do call every time or my card doesn’t work. They’ve marked my account something like “irregular foreign travel, always calls” because I really prefer to spend the five minutes making the call a week before I leave and have them keep the stronger fraud watch on my account.
I had an experience with Citibank a few years ago where they didn’t block any charges, but I did get a call from their fraud department. I had charged hundreds of dollars in travel expenses in various countries without problems that year, so I was surprised when a $7.00 purchase at a Walgreens in Abilene, Texas, triggered a flag on my account. The Citibank CSR said my account was flagged because the Walgreens cashier manually keyed in my credit card number (their scanners were down that day).
@Troy F
The only reason you should even have a money belt in the first place is because you are travelling in a country with little electronic infrastructure. Like I said, if you’re anywhere in a developed country, and you’re a little bit smart about things, you should not need to carry around much cash. One should not have to live one’s life by the idea that your bank is going to screw you in the most evil and criminal way possible, like this lady.
That being said, if you ARE in a developING country, remember that money belts aren’t perfect. If someone mugs you, likely as not they’re going to have at least watched you for a few minutes, and chosen you because you’ve got nice stuff. Don’t rely on money belts not to be found out. Criminals aren’t retards.
I called the bank a little while ago to find out what, if anything, was being done for this woman and her husband. The bank assured me that they were working with her to resolve the situation, and that this was a rare event.
I asked if they would give an update to the Consumerist once the situation was resolved, and the woman I spoke with said “probably not.”
Fair enough, I guess. But it couldn’t hurt their PR.
I’d really like to see a follow-up on this. I’d be horrified if I were in a similar situation.
Front page of my credit union’s website has a list of countries where the CU has blocked debit card transactions, and another list of countries where credit card transactions are blocked. The lists are in big, bold letters–no way to miss it. I’d assumed that all banks did the same thing.
@Pope John Peeps II: It has nothing to do with your bank trying to screw you – that’s why you carry a couple of credit cards AND cash when you travel.
You hide some cash to help in the possiblity of getting your wallet stolen – otherwise, you now have no credit cards, no ATM card, no cash and you may well have also lost your passport, rail pass, return flight ticket, etc.
Picking pockets is less risky for a thief than trying to actually confront and rob people, but if you actually do get held up and lose everything, you’ll be in the same boat either way – what’s a couple hundred dollars more or less at that point? If you get targeted because they know you have a money belt or you are travelling with “nice stuff,” you should be more discreet when traveling anyway.
So you can’t guarantee you’ll never get robbed, but it’s silly to not at least defend yourself against the more likely scenario of being pickpocketed. If you can separate your stuff and put a backup card and some cash somewhere that is much harder to grab, losing your wallet is much less of a concern.
Shit happens on the road – better to be prepared. Takes very little extra effort to hide 100 euro in a money belt. In my field we evaluate risks by considering the potential loss, the likelihood of it happening and the cost/effort required to mitigate the loss. Strapping on a money belt with an emergency stash of cash is low cost and low effort.
Of course there is still no substitute for being aware of your surroundings and travelling smart, but that’s no reason to not bother taking easy precautions like this to save lots of headache.
Finally, the electronic infrastructure means very little. Berlin has plenty of infrastructure – people there just don’t use plastic very much. You won’t get very far without cash in that town.
Anyway I guess this is way off topic now…I just would not want anyone to have a bad experience that could have easily been prevented.
Geography is not really taught in public schools. My old roommate (from Cali and public schoole educated) once asked me if it was really cold in my home state of Maryland, since it’s right next to….wait for it….Minnesota. Yeah, I’m mid-western!
Californians are pretty bad with this mainly because they seemingly never bother to learn areas outside of California, Oregon, and Nevada.
Where does her dorky husband find those clothes with miss-matched prints, KMart?
BTW, did anyone say that she looks HOT? OK, maybe SASSY.
Ugh,
Nasty story.
I hope you not only pulled your money, but gave the manager of the bank an earfull and wrote a nasty letter to the CEO of the company.
Banks are supposed to work FOR us, not against us.
Of course, always carry a credit card and don’t set any odd spending limits unless you have zero self-control.
Does it matter if you had spent the entire amount on the credit card, then paid it off within 30 days? You already had the money. Credit card companies give you a 30 day float (unless you carry a balance), so there really wasn’t a good reason NOT to use one (except that you didn’t wantt to – which I get).
I’ve been all over the states and never had an issue with my LaSalle bank card, but who knows? If I did, I kick up a shitstorm over it. i mean, banks work on a lot of levels. They take your money and use it to invest, provide loans, etc. They offer you a pittance, if anything, for doing them the favor of making them rich. Then they refuse to help you when you are screwed?
I don’t think that’s okay.
They brought the ATM out back in the day to reduce costs and make it cheaper to do business. The idea was that people could hit an ATM for cash instead of a teller, reducing the need for loads of tellers.
Then they started talking about how expensive it was and charging you for using ATM’s from other banks (it costs them money? mmm hmmm.) Now, my bank charged me a few bucks if I go below my daily minimum, a few bucks if I use the ATM down the street that isn’t a bank owned atm, a few bucks if I use a teller more than 3 times a month, a few bucks here, a few bucks there….
Screw them.
It is YOUR money. They should be careful not to piss you off, not the other way around.
I’m just trying to figure out where they were going to find a beach to have “drinks on the beach” in Las Vegas.
There some ocean I’m not aware of?
Tangential, but…
This is probably Mandalay Bay, at the far south end of the Strip. Their pool area includes a gigantic sand beach with a wave pool. Hard Rock has a beach as well, but since she mentions going to Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce, a burlesque club at the Mandalay, I’m assuming that’s the resort in question.
[www.mandalaybay.com]
The bank is retarded, blah, blah, blah, CSRs are idiots, etc, etc…..
People actually have credit cards with $300 limits?
Plus I think they’re going overboard with the CC avoidance, if you just paid off your CC immediately after using it, it would have been the same as using a debit card.
For example, I pay off all my CCs at least once a week online, so its basically the same as a debit card to me…..but with cash back.
HSBC is typically loans to customers with damaged credit, so it could be that these customers have spent a lot of time to get out of debt, and I can understand the desire to stay out.
My guess is that raising their credit limit at the last minute simply wasn’t an option. The bank shouldn’t have have screwed them over with an overly broad block of Las Vegas.
The fact that the customer service agent was too stupid to know the difference between a city and state is sad. The fact that the agent wouldn’t own up to her mistake and insisted that she was right and kept rudely “correcting” the customer would be enough for me to take my business elsewhere.
I call bullshit on this one…
Star has nothing to do with the debit/credit transactions. They handle the ATM.
I think if Visa/MasterCard stopped serving Las Vegas…we would know about it.
Wow. My bank has a great system: if a suspicious or fraudulent transaction comes across, their automated system calls me (my cell), and walks me through some security stuff to make sure it’s me and that I authorize the transaction. It actually caught someone who’d tried to use my number to make a purchase.
Still, you should have a credit card. When I go on vacation I don’t carry my ATM cards, just a couple of credit cards. Then you pay the whole thing off afterward. It’s safer, and more convenient.
@Smashville:
Individual banks can operate their debit cards however they feel like. If they have rules they want to apply, it’s fair game (as long as they aren’t blatantly illegal). It wasn’t Visa/Mastercard that had stopped serving in Las Vegas. It was that couple’s bank that locked up any of their customers’ debit cards if they were used in Las Vegas. This story might seem a bit farfetched in how incredibly rude the bank reps were, it’s not so farfetched as to be impossible.
Ugh. Private school, public school, college, postgrad, what the fuck ever. It’s NOT ‘semantics’. Semantics is the study of word meanings and choice. There’s no issue of semantics in calling Las Vegas a state, because it’s a city. There is no other option. That’s it. Semantics–word choice in what one calls Vegas–don’t really enter into the picture. Someone calling Vegas a state isn’t a variance in semantics, it’s them being DUMB. Semantics is my choice of the word ‘dumb’ instead of ‘imbecillic’, ‘idiotic’, or a myriad of other synonyms, or perhaps less pc terms like ‘retarded’. Thank you, I feel much better now that I’ve gotten that off my chest.
Based on the Bankking horror stories that have been showcased on this website, it seems that we would be better off as consumers not putting all our eggs in one basket. My wife and I kept our pre-marriage bank accounts, which are at different banks than our joint account, simply out of inertia. Turns out it was a good mistake, because we had to tap into our joint savings account for an emergency, only to discover that the bank had suspended the account for some reason that is still unclear to me now. Luckily we were able to tap into the accounts at the other banks.
This reminds me of when I used to run the switchboard at Litehouse way back in high school…someone asked, “Where is your company located?” and I said, “Idaho.” The response? In all seriousness: “Idaho? What state is that in?”