Reminds me of my experience arriving in Tokyo and trying to withdraw some cash to pay my first month’s rent to my landlord, only to find my card didn’t work (I had told them I was travelling).
My landlord let me use their phone to call the bank (otherwise I would’ve been 18 and homeless in a foreign city at this point in the story), who told me that there was no block on my card and I should try it again.
That, about eight (seriously, 8) times, running between different ATMs and the phone in the landlord’s office over the course of several hours, each time making them fully aware I’m about to become homeless, and being assured there was no block on my account. Then it was nearly closing time for my landlord.
I trekked across the city to this bank’s only Tokyo branch, a fancy branch which is supposed to be exclusively for rich people, with sofas and cushions and coffee and crumpets and heuwpfhwufh… I handed them my card and said “please make this work”. They offered me a sofa and a cushion (no coffee or crumpets) while they called the UK office, who I guess said something like:
Oh yeah, that’s the crazy guy who’s been calling all day. There’s no block on his card.
I took them by the hand and lead them to their own ATM to show them that the transaction is declined. あれ？！？！
Anyway, it was late at this point and they wanted to close, so they kicked me out on the street and told me to come back the next day. Amazingly my landlord let me stay the night in the apartment… phew.
The next day I trekked back to the fancy pants branch to see what they could do for me, and they put me on the phone with the bank’s elite top secret fraud department, a maverick squad who aren’t afraid to break the rules. Apparently they have their own special block they sometimes put on cards that the regular fraud department can’t see or remove. Trollol. They actually asked if I’d like to remove the block.
24 frantic hours after my first attempt, I was finally able to withdraw cash. Oh and the parting shot? When I told them I would be making a complaint they said that this was normal procedure, for my own protection, so they weren’t interested in any feedback… 