UK bankcard not working in the US

Call back and ask to speak with a manager. You are right the customer service people are like robots, they are not taught or even allowed to think out of the box....my experience with UK telephone customer service anyway.

Here is a recent example that my husband experienced. He has a UK bank account and was able to use he debit card here in the states with no problem. His statement is mailed to our US address. Anyway, last month he tries to use his debit card at three different bank machines and none of them worked so he called his Bank and they guy says "nothing is wrong/no flags on your account" it must be the network within the states that has a problem. So he waits until the next day and tries the machines again, still not working. A few days later he receives a letter from his bank saying that its been flagged since "someone" tried to use it in the states. Really? I wonder who that could have been? He is their customer and has a US address on record yet they block use of the card, add to the fact that the customer service rep told him that he card "was fine to use". 

Anyway, I told DH that he needed to call and ask for a manager and an explanation as to why he was blocked from using his card! What if it had been an emergency and we needed that money asap? He called (and didn't complain as per usual) and they unblocked it, my question was why didn't the CS guy see that his card was blocked the first time he called . Nothing is ever easy. 

Sorry to hear about your troubles.....unfortunately you will have to make more calls until you get to the right person. I hope you can get it straightened out soon!

Hmmm... never figured this one out either. DH's debit card never worked in the US, even at ATMs, but his credit card worked fine. Guess it has something to do with the chip and pin system. Not sure what can be done, though.

DH's debit card never worked in the US, even at ATMs, but his credit card worked fine.

When we're in the US, we don't select 'debit card' as the choice (if you have one like at Wal-Mart, for instance) - we pick 'credit card' instead even though we are using our UK debit card.  Whenever I picked 'debit card' - it wouldn't work, but picking 'credit card', it does.  It's not HSBC though.

When we're in the US, we don't select 'debit card' as the choice (if you have one like at Wal-Mart, for instance) - we pick 'credit card' instead even though we are using our UK debit card.  Whenever I picked 'debit card' - it wouldn't work, but picking 'credit card', it does.  It's not HSBC though.

I did try that. I was one of my tests. Still a no go. Now they're mailing some papers to me to fill out. They seem to be having a hard time grasping that I'm not in London and won't be back for months.  Thankfully I have a friend who is giving me a short term, zero interest loan until this gets straightened out.

I did try that. I was one of my tests. Still a no go. Now they're mailing some papers to me to fill out. They seem to be having a hard time grasping that I'm not in London and won't be back for months.  Thankfully I have a friend who is giving me a short term, zero interest loan until this gets straightened out.

can they not fax them to you? seriously! i would think about a new bank when you get back.

I am thinking about it. It's just so hard to get a bank account. But not really as a student I guess.  I'm going to have my friend who lives in London put on the account if I can. She'll pose as my girlfriend if she has to!

Debit Cards can really let a person down.  My US one worked at Bank A in Belize but not Bank B.  It didn't work in Austria but was just fine in Italy.  I now consider it as a "potential" source of cash and nothing to be relied upon.  With credit cards on the other hand, the less developed the place (say Honduras) the less chance merchants are set up to accept credit cards.  Makes me want to buy an old travel guide from 1890 to see how they got things done back in the day...I think you did something like hand gold sovereigns to the Knights Templar and a line of credit was available on the Crusades which is more reliability than I have been experiencing lately.   

  Makes me want to buy an old travel guide from 1890 to see how they got things done back in the day...I think you did something like hand gold sovereigns to the Knights Templar and a line of credit was available on the Crusades which is more reliability than I have been experiencing lately.   

I literally laughed out loud on this one!