Sister is traveling to England - lost her debit card.

My sister is doing a study abroad program and leaving for London on Monday. She's just realized that she can't find her debit card anywhere.  She has around £250 cash to take with her and was planning on using her debit card to take out more as she needed it.

Our mom has offered to let my sister take her debit card to England to use it to get money out of the ATM. She's already called her bank to let them know her card will be used in the UK. Obviously she wouldn't try to use it to shop or anything, since the card has my mother's name on it. It's been a few years since I've been in the UK. Would there be any problem with my sister using my mom's card to get cash out?

Thanks!

I've used my daughters us debit card before with no problems.  Like you, I wouldn't use it for shopping, but pulling out cash was ok.  Never had a problem.

She might be able to walk into the bank on Monday morning and get a new (possibly temporary) debit card. It would give her time to get a new permanent one sent to an address in the US and then forwarded to the UK.

She might be able to walk into the bank on Monday morning and get a new (possibly temporary) debit card. It would give her time to get a new permanent one sent to an address in the US and then forwarded to the UK.

This. The last time I lost my debit card my bank printed one out for me right at the branch.

However, if your mum gives her her card to use and notifies the bank that it will be used in the UK I can't imagine there would be a problem. It's not like the ATM checks ID.

This. The last time I lost my debit card my bank printed one out for me right at the branch.

However, if your mum gives her her card to use and notifies the bank that it will be used in the UK I can't imagine there would be a problem. It's not like the ATM checks ID.

The only problem I could foresee is if the card got stuck in the atm for any reason.  If it's in someone else's name, you wouldn't be able to go into the bank to collect it.

I'd pop to the bank for the temporary one, too. In fact, I had to, as someone stole my identity three days before I moved from NY to London. Grrr...

Bank of America were really helpful. I popped into the bank where they gave me an ATM card I could immediately use, and they also sent the permanent (debit) card to my address in London.

The only issue I ever came across was when I'd try to pull out money for rent each month. Because there is a maximum that can be withdrawn each day, I had to pull it out over a couple of days.

As to using in a store, I agree that she'd not be able to. Heck, I had lots of funny looks when I'd try to use my non-chip-and-PIN-just-swipe-technology American card!

As to using in a store, I agree that she'd not be able to. Heck, I had lots of funny looks when I'd try to use my non-chip-and-PIN-just-swipe-technology American card!

That and they'd check ID.

Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately, the bank she uses says it will take around 14 days for her to get a new card and they don't offer temporary cards.

Shes taking our moms card and crossing her fingers. I've noticed most ATMs around where I live have it where you just swipe the card- not actually put it in the machine. Hopefully she won't have and problems with that!

Most we use in York you put in the machine.  Couldn't your mom just have sent it on to her, and then she activated the new one in the UK?  That's what we do with mine for my US account.  My parents will just send it on to me when they receive it.  Anyway, I really hope it all works out okay and your sister has a lovely time in London.

She's only going to be there until May 29th. They've canceled her card/ordered a new or today. If it gets to my mom within a week or so, she'll probably go ahead and mail it.

She's only going to be there until May 29th. They've canceled her card/ordered a new or today. If it gets to my mom within a week or so, she'll probably go ahead and mail it.

Ahhhhh... that makes sense.  I thought she would be here for longer.  At least neither of them should be without a cash card for too long then. 

FWIW, I did this a few years ago: came to the UK as a student visitor and used my mom's debit card at the cashpoints, as I had just moved back from Japan and didn't have a US bank account.  It worked fine.  Yes in most places you have to insert the card but as long as you don't forget the PIN you're OK.

Is it actually legal and also in accordance with bank terms and conditions to loan debit cards to other people, even if they are relatives? Where does the named cardholder stand if the card is stolen from the person who is borrowing it, and money removed from the account? If the cardholder has more than one card, and they use that other card in the US and the person borrowing the debit card uses it in the UK like 5 minutes later, might that not trigger some misuse monitoring program? I know that cloned credit cards can get detected if they are used in e.g. England and then Singapore 5 minutes later.

Talking about cards, I was wondering how other people are managing using US swipe cards in the UK?  Last visit it got to the point where I decided I will just take cash in future.

I tried to use my US Mastercard debit card at a couple of different ATMs and it wouldn't work.  I assume it was because it is not a chip and pin card since it works fine in the US, but I could be wrong. 

My US credit card, which is not chip and pin, was accepted most places but not everywhere.  I couldn't use it on the train because it wasn't chip and pin.  The train conductor looked at it and said "what kind of card is this?" as if he'd never seen one before.  Most other places accepted it but some gave me funny looks.  In Sainsbury's, I was doing self checkout and had to wait for someone to come over and check my signature.  Bit embarrassing.

I heard that the UK may be doing away with the magnetic strips on cards altogether, which will make it difficult for UK folks to use cards in the US and vice versa.

I have a feeling that sometimes banks just don’t talk to each other.  I’ve had problems pulling money out in some places, but then the atm across the street will work just fine.  Also, part of the problem might be the wording of the atm service that you accessing.  I’ve had problems before because I would get the options, current account, checking account, savings account.  When I picked checking account I wouldn’t get anything.  It took me a few tries to give the current account option a go and it worked fine.

As for charges taking places within minutes.  I had two of my cards stolen when I was traveling.  They were still on me, so somehow someone had gotten the numbers.  With one of them there was a withdraw in Nice, Frace (that was me) and one from upstate New York (not me) within about two minutes of each other.  One of the customer service people told me that I could have taken a plane and used it on the same day?  It didn’t even make sense.  It took about 3 months to get all of my money back. 

I don’t have a chip and pin yet and don’t feel like I’m terrible limited.  I use my debit card for most things, but on occasion (like topping up my Oyster card) my debit doesn’t work, but my credit card always does.