April 4th, 2007, 23:57
On my last visit to Thailand (Pattaya, Bangkok, Hua Hin and Ratchaburi) I used a UK Post Office "Travel Money Card". It's a VISA Debit Card that you can "load" with credit and then use in any VISA ATM. You can add credit by phone at any time.
You have the same protection as Travel Cheques as the Post Office will replace it and any monies if it is stolen etc. It also has the advantage over normal Credit/Debit cards in that no one can withdraw more than the amount you load it with so there's no risk of running up large debits if it gets into the wrong hands.
It worked fine and I left some credit on the card to use on my next trip.
At the beginning of the week I checked the amount of credit left. I was surprised that there was very little.
I called their Hotline and was told that the card had been used earlier that day in Bangkok. Obviously it hadn't as it was safely at home in the UK with me. Someone had attempted to withdraw more than the amount on the card and then lowered the amount until there were was enough credit to cover it.
I know that Thailand has one of the highest levels of Card fraud in the World but I was still surprised that the card must have been cloned at some point during my last trip. I only ever used it in ATM machines so it was never in anybody else's hands even for a moment and the PIN was only known to me. I've read of clever devices and little cameras on ATM machines so I can only assume that's what happened.
The Post Office will be refunding the lost monies under their fraud protection scheme and the card has been replaced and the PIN number changed.
So if I use it in future it will only be in machines inside Banks and I'll hope that's safe...
You have the same protection as Travel Cheques as the Post Office will replace it and any monies if it is stolen etc. It also has the advantage over normal Credit/Debit cards in that no one can withdraw more than the amount you load it with so there's no risk of running up large debits if it gets into the wrong hands.
It worked fine and I left some credit on the card to use on my next trip.
At the beginning of the week I checked the amount of credit left. I was surprised that there was very little.
I called their Hotline and was told that the card had been used earlier that day in Bangkok. Obviously it hadn't as it was safely at home in the UK with me. Someone had attempted to withdraw more than the amount on the card and then lowered the amount until there were was enough credit to cover it.
I know that Thailand has one of the highest levels of Card fraud in the World but I was still surprised that the card must have been cloned at some point during my last trip. I only ever used it in ATM machines so it was never in anybody else's hands even for a moment and the PIN was only known to me. I've read of clever devices and little cameras on ATM machines so I can only assume that's what happened.
The Post Office will be refunding the lost monies under their fraud protection scheme and the card has been replaced and the PIN number changed.
So if I use it in future it will only be in machines inside Banks and I'll hope that's safe...