UK Banks Make It Hard For Customers To Access Funds Overseas

A recent survey carried out by uSwitch.com found that UK Holidaymakers have faced numerous problems due to the fact that their bank had blocked their cards, leaving them in a tight situation in a foreign land.

Most UK nationals are aware that they need to inform their banks and card providers that they are traveling overseas and will be using their cards in a new location.

This prior intimation allows the bank to make changes to their system and authorize card transactions from locations out of the United Kingdom (UK).

uSwitch.com reached out to more than 2,000 people and found that 26 percent of those surveyed faced problems with their cards in a foreign country.

As a result if often created unnecessary stress and embarrassment at times as they had to borrow money from friends and family or spend more than an hour of their vacation time on the phone speaking to the banks customer support team and trying to sort out their problem. What is interesting is that close to 61 percent of those individuals who faced problems with their cards overseas state that they had indeed informed the bank prior to their travels but that did not help their cause.

Nearly 15 percent of those who faced problems with their cards stated that they had to wait for more than a day before the issue could be sorted out. Banks tend to block card transactions from foreign locations as a measure of safety and precaution to keep their customers safe but a lack of communication often times internally ends up hurting the end customer.

uSwitch.com expert Tom Lyon believes that its time for banks in the UK to invest in better technology and eliminate such problems for holidaymakers. Lyon encouraged UK holidaymakers who faced such problems to contact their banks and inform them of the issues they faced and the costs their incurred. Lyon believes that it is the responsibility of the bank to reimburse their customers for any excess charges that occurred due to their cards being denied.

Some banks do sympathize with their customers and pay out but there are banks that refuse to proceed with a reimbursement claim.

Lyon went on to say that if a bank refuses to pay out compensation in this regard, then the customer does have the option of reaching out to the Financial Ombudsman Service which is an independent party and no extra fees will be charged.