07 March 2007
Bank Notes
here we pay for just about everything with debit cards. so Thursday when I went to buy my soccer shoes and my debit card was refused I got a little worried, but payed with a visa.
I called the bank the next day, they said if my card was locked I should take it in to my branch. ok, this is Friday. I have 60€ in pocket, and am leaving for the Austrian Ski weekend (pix soon) at 2pm.
I went to the bank at noon. I explained the problem. The guy took my card and went into a back room for 20 minutes. I waited, examined my cuticles, and waited. He came back and gave it to me saying it should work again.
I took it to the ATM and no go. I went back to him. He came with me to the ATM and I showed him how it didn't work. He told me that he fixed my magnetic stripe, but it could be the smartchip that was locked. To fix that they'd have to send it to Card Services office in Munich, it would probably take a week.
My face lit right up when I heard this news.
Fine, I said. Give me some money to tide me over, and send the card to Munich. Ok, so he wrote up the slip and checked the computer. Guess what! My card was fine, my Account was locked!
Why? He got a coworker to come over. Turns out they wanted to see my passport and get a copy of my work permit. The phone number on file was a pool cell phone i gave back a month ago, so they couldn't reach me. When they couldn't reach me they did the one thing that guaranteed I'd come in: Shut off the money. ha.
so she made more copies of my passport, gave me some money, and sent me on my way.
And it only took an hour! bah. I love it here. it's going really well.
I called the bank the next day, they said if my card was locked I should take it in to my branch. ok, this is Friday. I have 60€ in pocket, and am leaving for the Austrian Ski weekend (pix soon) at 2pm.
I went to the bank at noon. I explained the problem. The guy took my card and went into a back room for 20 minutes. I waited, examined my cuticles, and waited. He came back and gave it to me saying it should work again.
I took it to the ATM and no go. I went back to him. He came with me to the ATM and I showed him how it didn't work. He told me that he fixed my magnetic stripe, but it could be the smartchip that was locked. To fix that they'd have to send it to Card Services office in Munich, it would probably take a week.
My face lit right up when I heard this news.
Fine, I said. Give me some money to tide me over, and send the card to Munich. Ok, so he wrote up the slip and checked the computer. Guess what! My card was fine, my Account was locked!
Why? He got a coworker to come over. Turns out they wanted to see my passport and get a copy of my work permit. The phone number on file was a pool cell phone i gave back a month ago, so they couldn't reach me. When they couldn't reach me they did the one thing that guaranteed I'd come in: Shut off the money. ha.
so she made more copies of my passport, gave me some money, and sent me on my way.
And it only took an hour! bah. I love it here. it's going really well.
