Thursday, August 16, 2012

How being a credit card whore prevented me from getting screwed. Metaphorically of course!

You had a busy day full of meetings. You rush out of one meeting to rush into the airport.  When you arrive at your hotel you are stressed. You are tired! You are hungry! You are looking forward to a hot shower a stiff drink and warm meal. An
But if something extremely trivial is keeping you away from it how would you feel? Fucking furious??? Yes well that’s exactly how I felt a couple of days ago with the world’s local bank.
I had traveled overseas on some urgent business and was trying to check into my hotel when I was informed that the preauthorization of my card could not be processed. I was flummoxed. I had informed the card center that I would be visiting overseas and they had reconfirmed with me that my card was activated for overseas use and was good to go. But here I was stranded and what was worse was I could not get through to the customer service hotline. Well I could get through but I could not speak to anyone as no human being was answering the call.
For a moment it seemed that I might I have to spend the night on the road in a strange country.
Fortunately for me I had two other cards with me and I had been prudent enough to inform the respective card centers that I might be using them overseas. This precaution paid off and I managed to get my preauthorization processed via my American Express card issued by NTB. 
The sad thing is that the HSBC customer service line was not answered that night though I tried three more times spending a total of at least thirty to forty five minutes being on hold. And that at Automatic International Roaming rates as well.
Which means I missed having my drink before having my dinner. Well at least I had hot water and a cosy bed to sleep on. Thank goodness for small mercies.
Now I admit a lot of people call me a credit card whore because I do have quite a few of them issued by many banks. And I am not faithful to just one. I guess sometimes being a whore does have its advantages. Otherwise I would have ended up being screwed.  Hence the title of this post. Tee hee hee!

4 comments:

Jack Point said...

There service is about the worst in the country. There is only one other firm that I know of that is in the same league ;)

Anonymous said...

"World's local bank" my ass! The worst bank in the country! Arrogant, ignorant, sick attitude and useless!!

INK

Anonymous said...

Ouch. That sucks. Their card center is near impossible to get through in the night. Which is of course day time in certain parts of the world when you travel. Glad you were able to use your other card. I've been in situations where my hotel reservation is not gone through and seriously it's not fun. Specially after a good fifteen hour flight. -Frank

Anonymous said...

Mostly, there service is limited till the time it takes for you to get a card.
And needless to say they will go to such an extreme to do so.

Recently my friend was offered a platinum card since he got thru' CIMA & also because he was earning more than 50k. Seriously, ryt?

Sometimes I do wonder how the recovery procedure works.

Anyways, glad that you somehow managed. Monthly interest payments should suck though.. :)