SEA ATM Warning.....
 

Just a warning to those that have been told to just use your ATM. I just returned from a 2 week trip to Thailand & Cambodia and my ATM didn't work anywhere. Prior to leaving I notified the credit card providers of the cards I planned to take and I also contacted my bank (Wells Fargo). When I contacted my bank I told them exactly where I was going and the dates and I even asked for contact information should I experience any problems. I was given a main number to ask to be connected to toll-free and 3 separate access numbers (one for each country I would be visiting). I was also told that to be safe I should make sure I only had a 4 digit PIN and that none of the 4 digits should be a "0". Well upon arrival in Bangkok my card kept being rejected and I got the message "incomlete data on card" or something similar. Then the access number I was given said they no longer contracted with my bank, but worked similar to a 900 number and that if I gave them my credit card number they would connect me for a fee. Finally I just called the number on the back of my card (NOT toll-free, and was charged 1060 Baht) and the customer service rep said that I should have ben warned prior to departure because "it's a problem VISA has been having in SEA for several months and that my only option was to go into a bank and get a cash advance against my VISA and that they would waive all my fees upon return". One other note, since this was a new card, about a month old, it has the "New" VISA logo and several money exchange offices would not do the cash advance since it was a debit/VISA card with the "New" logo.

Play it safe and bring some travelers checks!

I had the exact same problem with my Wells Fargo ATM card. On a previous trip it worked fine. Last time I had to go into banks for cash advances. A little inconvenient for sure, but luckily they are open much later than banks in the US.

i noticed that you mentioned "debit" as the type of card...the only problem i have ever had with one of my cards was with a debit card....not wells fargo, by the way, but from a local MA credit union....i was told after my return that debit cards are prohibitted from being used in some high risk countries....the country i was in was indonesia and it doesn't get more high risk than there....

i have used several regualar atm cards in thailand in the past with no problems over a 10 year period...

could it be that wells fargo is a problem?? and maybe the debit designation...

odd that others have not had that problem recently...it would have been reported here..

TO ME THIS JUST POINTS UP THE NECESSITY TO HAVE SEVERAL OPTIONS FOR GETTING MONEY WHILE TRAVELLING...

Broncos, that's a bad problem to have. I've never had difficulty with my ATM card in Asia. But it sounds like Wells Fargo has a problem... That's bad news. I'd be interested in whether anyone else besides broncos and JohnH have had problems with Wells Fargo cards. It sounds like WElls Fargo may have made a change in their cards that causes them to be rejected in Asian ATMs.

I'm sorry to hear about the problem that some people have... We just got back from SEA a coupleof weeks ago, and I used my ATM card all over - in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi and Singapore... I never had a problem... I also had brought along a stash of several $100 bills that I kept in a money belt underneath my trousers (or in the hotel safe depending on location) just in case I couldn't find an ATM if my card didn't work...

I'm glad you posted this warning - hopefully other people will read it if they have a similar situation to yours, and will be able to avoid those problems...

btw, my password has a "0" in it so that is not true either

duh---it has two "0"

I always take several $100 bills, just in case. But I do rely on my ATM card for most of my cash.

Bob, so there are two zeros and what are the other two numbers? :)

I have a wells fargo card and used it successfully in Thailand in January.

However, I couldn't get it to work anywhere in Sweden 6 months prior to that although it worked fine in Norway on that same trip!

Go figure.

the other two numbers are between 1 and 9...let me look at them...i have written them on the front of my card...i will get back to you in a few minutes

Bob, I promise to keep it a secret if you would post your password numbers (in order) on this thread.

I have never had a problem with my Smith Barney Mastercard. It is kind of a hybrid debit/credit card where charges (but not ATM withdrawals) are not debited to my brokerage account until the end of the month. I have successfully used the card for ATM withdrawals in Thailand, Bali and India. I admit that I did not attempt to use the only ATM machine in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Others are having problems as well. There is a thread about Wells Fargo debit card problems on Flyer Talk:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=532207

This is the first trip we ever went on where we didn't take travellers checks for a back up..And we never had a problem for almost a month in Goa/Siem Reap or BKK..However, there is only 1 ATM our card will work with in India and it is HDFC...NO other one will work, and i found that out on our last trip to India..I do know that you have to have a 4 digit pin only...But just coming back from Siem Reap about 10 days ago, we had no problems with our card...

I really think this has to do with the "new" cards only. I have been banking with Wells for the last 10 + years and had never had a problem prior to this trip.

I think that if you have received a new card from Wells within the last couple of months, be PREPARED with an alternative method to get cash if traveling.

Yes, thanks for the warning. My traveling companion has a new card from Wells Fargo, and she may well re-open an old account with her credit union before our next trip.

Hi all
I'm in Europe right now, and I just wanted to put in a plug for Wells Fargo. We've had NO problem using ATM and also using the ATM card for check cashing privileges as well. I'm not sure why you were having a problem, broncos32, but we are having much success using our WF cards. DH and I each have a card, and we each can withdraw a set limit per day, which is quite adequate for our travels.
Carol

This may well be more to do with visa cards generally.

When we arrived at Bangkok airport last November, our first port of call before leaving the airport was to use the ATM machines. Two visa cards and several ATMs later and still no money! I had a mastercard on me and that was fine. My partner later rang the bank in Scotland which had issued his card. They said that it was a problem that they had been experiencing with ATMs in Thailand and that he would be able to draw out cash if he went into any bank. Shame they hadn't told him that when he rang to notify them about going to Thailand!
After that we just used banks and not the holes in the wall, even with my mastercard!

This talk began with Visa but quickly turned to Wells Fargo.
My card is an Visa card and my ATM is through one of the 10 largest banks in the US.
Is Visa over it's problems??
Please clarify experiences over past 2-3 months to present.Thanks!

Just an update. We recently returned from an extended trip (9/5 - 10/3/2006) in Thailand, Laos (Luang Prabang), Cambodia (Siem Reap) & Vietnam (Hanoi & Ha Long Bay). No problems whatsoever with ATMs in either Thailand or Vietnam with my VISA card. The machines were plentiful in each city. US dollars were used exclusively in Luang Prabang & Siem Reap because of the shortness of the stays (3 days only in each) and because they seemed to prefer the US currency.

Where is your trip report jrruff? Andy (gpanda)will start charging you if you don't post it soon!

Please share info about your trip with the rest of us.

Thanks!