For Your Own Safety

Hong Kong, China

I'm in Hong Kong, at last. I've really been looking forward to this. Sadly, I couldn't just have a smooth, perfect stay. Seems, that would be asking too much.
After a gorgeous boat trip with my friend Mr. T and some of his colleagues to some islands I wanted to get some money. Paying for the trip and my initial Octopus Card (like London's Oyster Card but with more ... arms, I guess) had eaten up most of the cash I had changed on entering. I was left with just a handful of Hong Kong Dollars and a few hundred Chinese Yuan.
When I went to the cash machine in downtown Causeway Bay, however, the machine refused to give me money. Had I gone to the wrong bank or the wrong branch? These things go through your head. Seen globally Hong Kong is a small place, maybe not all local banks allow you to use foreign cards. It was a weekend, so all banks were closed. Over the next day I tried all the various banks and their ATMs that I passed. No, no and no. The machine would always eject my card and print the same little advice slip saying "transaction rejected" and an error code. No reason. Just rejected. Now, there was no way I could already have spent so much as to completely exhaust my funds. And I made sure all the ATMs here have the VISA symbol on them. I had entered my PIN correctly, too. But then what was the problem? I was down to 10 dollars and getting really annoyed. I had been using the card all over China just to be rejected in a much more international place like Hong Kong!
On Monday, I walked into a branch to ask. The manager himself came out to talk to me. I guess, that's foreigner treatment in action again. I showed him the printout and he went to check. Turns out it wasn't their ATM or bank that was rejecting my transaction but my bank in UK, Lloyds TSB, was. Damn it, that meant at least one international phone call to Lloyds's help line. Could they help me make that call? They couldn't since it was not an overseas branch of their own bank but a completely different institution.
By now I had told my friends what was going on. Without any further comment Lingyun had just gone to an ATM, withdrawn 2000 dollars and pushed them into my hands. "Give it back to me when you can." Technically, I hate asking for or borrowing money, especially from friends. I don't want to owe them anything. Makes them seem more like business relations. But what choice did I have? I was damn lucky I had them.
Lingyun also let me use her phone to make the call to the help line. A man picked up, I explained my problem. He would connect me to their fraud department and would I please hold. I held. I was pacing around the lobby of Lingyun's office building at Three Exchange Square. A woman picked up, I explained my problem again. The solution was as simple as it was stupid. Apologising and calling me "sir" she explained that this was one of their "random security measures to protect me against fraud". She would unlock my card right away. Random security measure?! I was calling from Hong Kong, I was thousands of kilometers away from home, my cash was running low and their "random security measure" had disabled my only means to get more money! How did that help me? She was sorry for the inconvenience. Inconvenience my ass! I'm lucky to have my friends here. I didn't say that, of course. Wouldn't have much use anyway. She's just a pawn. So, to prevent further inconvenience I explained I will still be travelling other countries in the region. Could I give her a list of countries to put into their computer system to prevent any further randomness. I was apologised to and called "sir" some more but there was no way she could do that. It shouldn't happen anymore for the next three days, after that I was welcome to call their 24-hour help line for assistance. I was also welcome to pay the fees for the call. She didn't say that, of course. Could she do anything else for me at all today? No, I think Lloyds TSB had already done enough damage. But I didn't say that either.
So, with a lot of things left unsaid it took until this morning to finally make a successful withdrawal. So, it seems I can at least pay back my monetary debt to Lingyun. I hardly dare to think what will happen after I return to China, let alone places like Cambodia where I don't speak the language and don't know anyone either. Then I'll be screwed. I just hope I'll have a telephone handy and enough cash to pay for the call to the help line.
I'm sure my anger is not at all justified and this is all for my own safety. But surely there must also be better ways of protecting me and my money than randomly blocking my transactions and cutting me off from vitally needed funds when I'm abroad. Especially when I'm abroad. Or is this a way to force people to call their expensive overseas help line and make them some additional money? Come to think of it this isn't the first time it has happened to me either. When I went to Malaysia in 2006 my card was also rejected. Thankfully my girlfriend's card wasn't. Oh well, at least we'll be safe. Pennyless but safe.