While in France my BofA ATM Debit card didn’t work. Kept getting error messages or if the transaction went all the way to BofA it was reversed. Tried it at several different acquirer banks including BNP Paribus which is supposedly a partner with no luck. Had to use our credit card and incur a cash advance fee. Talked to BofA person with no help. They don’t do travel alerts anymore so I couldn’t have notified them ahead of time of our travels. We should have walked into a BNP branch to see help but didn’t take the time. Have had no problems with previous numerous trips. Anyone use a BofA debit card successfully in an ATM recently in France?
Posted by
Chicago
1537 posts
I doubt anyone in a BNP branch could have debugged the issue on the spot. While
there are a lot of possible explanations, it seems likely that some sort of setting on
your account is causing the issue. If BNP is a partner, what does this mean? Both
banks need to be part of the same ATM network (e.g., Cirrus, STAR, Bancomat) or
those networks need to talk to each other.
If you saved a receipt from one of the unsuccessful attempts, you might contact BofA
(maybe a bank branch, but more likely an IT Customer Service rep) and see if any of
the information on the receipt allows them to find the transaction and see what went
wrong.
Also, just in case, your cash advance is most likely being treated by the bank as a loan
and on top of the fee, they may be charging you interest. Check this and pay the loan
back asap to stop the additional interest.
Finally, it seems unlikely, but maybe there was some sort of phishing thing going on, so
consider changing your PIN.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
When I talked to a BofA person on the phone she checked and I had nothing on my debit card that would block the transaction. When a transaction is not completed there is no receipt.
Posted by
Bend, OR
2359 posts
Did you call the number on back and talk to a customer service rep? We’ve had problems on our last couple of trips with our local Interstate Bank, telling them we would be in Europe, being assured our ATM card would work and still having to spend time calling all over to get the card to work, all with apologies, of course.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
9645 posts
I have seen similar happen with traveling companions, despite notifying the bank, despite having used the card in Europe before, they try, and no luck.
I have as many as three debit cards that I can use, a Schwab card that always seems to work, and then two credit union cards, but it seems I rarely need to get cash (maybe once a trip), unless I am in Germany. Having a back-up is always a good idea.
My initial; guess for you was maybe fraud detection. Even though you put in travel notices, most banks will still flag a card if it detects unusual use. Their preference is to call you to approve or deny the activity. If you did not have service on your home phone, they may have tried, and failed a confirmation. However, I would think that they would have a record of it.
Posted by
2002 posts
Our not BofA debit card which worked all over France and the Netherlands then wouldn't work in Switzerland. It would ask something about wanting the conversion in Swiss currency or US currency. We kept choosing Swiss currency. No go. We chose US and then it let us. We still aren't sure what happened, but since we were only getting 200 swiss francs, we just went with it.
Sometimes there's just nothing that makes sense about why it declines.
Posted by
Middletown, RI
1675 posts
BofA charges fees for overseas use anyway. I never use mine when traveling outside of the U.S. even though it is my primary card and account when here. Fortunately, I have other credit cards, and a debit card from TD Bank, that do not foreign transaction charge fees.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
8885 posts
I used mine in Spain earlier this year and the transaction didn’t go through the first time. It was a user error. When the machine asked whether the money should come from savings or checking, I clicked savings when the account is actually checking. On my second try, clicking the correct type account, I got the money. A short call to BoA when I returned and it credited the bank fee back to my account. There’s no getting around the foreign transaction fee, but it was nominal.