My wife and I each have two credit cards, one in her name (CapitalOne - MasterCard) and one in mine (Halifax - MasterCard).
Whilst in France I popped into a public toilet to change some clothing and managed to lose my wallet with credit cards, ATM cards, Drivers Licence, Insurance Certificate and about €20. I only noticed the loss a couple of hours later.
The car park attendant said someone had reported finding it and was going to hand it into the Tourist Office. It never arrived.
We immediately contacted both Halifax and CapitalOne as we were stranded without sufficient funds to survive and get home.
Halifax were reasonably quick to respond but offered no real assistance whatsoever. All they could do was promise to get new cards sent to my registered address in the UK within the next 5 working days. They could (would!) not get anything sent to me in France unless I re-registered my address to one in France and even then it would take 10 working days or more to receive the cards. They were not prepared to call me back to save me money.
Capitalone responded quite differently. They asked me where I was and how long I would remain there. They then asked for my phone number and immediately called me back. After giving them a full explanation they gave me a telephone number for their USA Office and again I was called back. After a short time I was given the telephone number for MasterCard and again I was called back. MasterCard then agreed to send me a new emergency card to an address of my choice in France. I lost the cards on Sunday morning. I phoned CapitalOne on Sunday evening, MasterCard on Monday morning and the cards arrived on my campsite Tuesday around midday. The only minor inconvenience is that the card does not have a PIN number so I must always have it swiped and then signed.
So Halifax gets 1 out of a 100 (they were polite and reasonably quick but otherwise totally useless) and CapitalOne gets 100 out of 100.
Why are Halifax such a crap organisation?
As I am still in France I have not yet had the chance to challenge the performance of Halifax.
By the way we are at Bourg-Saint-Andeol in the Ardèche. The weather is very warm and sunny but just a trifle breezy. It's really great in Southern France and we would like to stay much longer. Tragically it's home on the 2 July.
Whilst in France I popped into a public toilet to change some clothing and managed to lose my wallet with credit cards, ATM cards, Drivers Licence, Insurance Certificate and about €20. I only noticed the loss a couple of hours later.
The car park attendant said someone had reported finding it and was going to hand it into the Tourist Office. It never arrived.
We immediately contacted both Halifax and CapitalOne as we were stranded without sufficient funds to survive and get home.
Halifax were reasonably quick to respond but offered no real assistance whatsoever. All they could do was promise to get new cards sent to my registered address in the UK within the next 5 working days. They could (would!) not get anything sent to me in France unless I re-registered my address to one in France and even then it would take 10 working days or more to receive the cards. They were not prepared to call me back to save me money.
Capitalone responded quite differently. They asked me where I was and how long I would remain there. They then asked for my phone number and immediately called me back. After giving them a full explanation they gave me a telephone number for their USA Office and again I was called back. After a short time I was given the telephone number for MasterCard and again I was called back. MasterCard then agreed to send me a new emergency card to an address of my choice in France. I lost the cards on Sunday morning. I phoned CapitalOne on Sunday evening, MasterCard on Monday morning and the cards arrived on my campsite Tuesday around midday. The only minor inconvenience is that the card does not have a PIN number so I must always have it swiped and then signed.
So Halifax gets 1 out of a 100 (they were polite and reasonably quick but otherwise totally useless) and CapitalOne gets 100 out of 100.
Why are Halifax such a crap organisation?
As I am still in France I have not yet had the chance to challenge the performance of Halifax.
By the way we are at Bourg-Saint-Andeol in the Ardèche. The weather is very warm and sunny but just a trifle breezy. It's really great in Southern France and we would like to stay much longer. Tragically it's home on the 2 July.
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