Why I cancelled my bank card
Damn Argentina’s banking system!
I have a wonderful bank card. It’s issued by one of these new fintech banks, and so lightning fast is their technology that as I tap my card to pay for something, my phone buzzes in my pocket. What’s best while travelling is that they don’t fleece you with lousy exchange rates or foreign currency transaction fees. So I use this card for everything, and had it securely hidden in my money belt when I ventured to La Boca in Buenos Aires, an area about which the guidebook has this to say: “La Boca is not the kind of neighbourhood for casual strolls. Be discreet and stick close to the busier streets”
The touristy area of La Boca is charming – colourfully painted houses and a fun market. Even though it might well be full of muggers and fraudsters waiting in lair, I was not going to be one of those careless tourists. Oh no!
I was happily strolling through the market at lunchtime when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Curious to know who might be contacting me, I found a discreet corner and consulted it. It was my bank telling me that I had just withdrawn money from a Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria ATM. WHAT??!! I hastily checked. My card was still there… What on earth was going on?
I had to act fast. God knows how the fraudster had managed to use my card – had it maybe been cloned somewhere? – but this was only for £60, and what would happen next would be a series of bigger withdrawals that would leave me penniless. I went into the bank app, and discovered that there was a chat facility. Perfect. I used it.
“Help! I’m in Argentina and my card has just been used fraudulently!”
“Yes, I can see the ATM transaction just now, but if you have your card with you, are you sure it’s not you?”
“Look, stop messing me around. I’m taking a risk even having my phone out chatting to you on the street in this dodgy part of Buenos Aires. Please cancel the card immediately before £1000 is withdrawn.”
“Are you absolutely sure? We can’t undo this if I cancel it.”
“Absolutely sure.”
“Well, if you’re absolutely sure, I’ll cancel it now. A new one will be sent to your home address in 5 working days”
Fat lot of use that was, but I was relieved no more money had been taken out of my account. I was now 100% reliant on my credit card. I prayed nothing would happen to that.
And that would have been the end of the story. Were it not for the complexities of the Argentine banking system, that had baffled me and my otherwise wonderful fintech bank. You see, I should not have cancelled the card. There was no fraudster. There was no withdrawal.
In fact, it was the BBVA ATM paying me. But my fintech bank’s systems aren’t geared up to people being paid by ATMs, and so its notifications say – reasonably enough – you have withdrawn £x. If I had looked carefully, my phone probably said I had withdrawn -£60, but in the heat of the moment neither I nor the bank chat person (bot?) noticed that.
In retrospect, I should have been taking more notice of some strange notifications that the bank had been sending me since I had been in Argentina. Every time I used my card, for example paying for dinner in a restaurant, I would get the usual notification about having made the payment, but then a couple of days later I would receive another one for a few pennies at the restaurant. I had stupidly been ignoring these small sums.
If I had looked carefully, I would have noticed that the small amounts were all negative payments. In other words the places were all paying me back a “tip” a couple of days after my visit. How nice! But why? To encourage me to go back? Bit odd…
