Day 144 Credit Card sorrow!

Sunday 12/08/2018 (Day 57 SZ) Sono Apartmentos Avenida Els Tremolencs, 34, La Garriga, 08530, Spain

II think I mentioned it that our Visa card wasn’t working and now our MasterCard is playing up, and John had tried and tried to call the 24 hr. hot line for Westpac, time and time again, with no luck.... plus his phone which is dying is playing up... so he took my UK Sim out and out in his Aust Sim and after a lot of fiddling he finally got onto Westpac... not only did we have credit card issues but there had been 3-4 double up payments taken from our account for fuel payments and a hire car for Crete.... turns out the Bank even though I had notified them 2 times with all the information about where we were going and what we were doing dates etc., they didn’t except it because John as the main holder for our account didn’t let them know, they blocked our accounts…. after nearly 5 months mind you they decided to do this very odd.....then when we queried about the double payments the bank put us through to the Fraud Squad... we got an Indian guy being the weekend as it was Sunday, anyway he told us because we still had the card it hadn’t been stolen they wouldn’t help us... even though we had 4 lots if double transactions against our account it wasn’t their concern... my goodness was I cross.. Even the bank staff had felt it was something fraudulent that’s why they put us through….Fat lot of good they are.... anyway the bank fixed our cards well we thought they had.... and off we set for the beach...

The trip there was through high rise jungle, not a good look or feel, the beach yep it had sand very course dirty sand, but it as sand... but it just didn’t look inviting at all. We found a spot to park that’s always a challenge, then off to the beach we set, well to say it was like Croatia or Italy it was not.... a Bar like the other places set up on the beach yes, and heaps of Umbrellas a few to be paid for many to were free spots... but it just lacked feeling and temptation to head out there.... so we headed to the Bar area for a drink, the Bar area which actually served not too bad of food, was ok to look at but to actually sit in the beach I am not so sure....

We sat and people watched for about an hour, it was quite funny watching a guy running past us about every 10-15 mins, eventually he started running backwards past us as well looked so funny and so different...
He was dressed in long pants and it was an extremely hot day, so it looked out of place... but the number of times he went past and his mannerisms made me think he may have a mental health issue..... And running may have been his therapy…..Either way it sure was entertaining watching him going back and forth, plus watching all the sexy girls coming from the beach, well for John not me!

By the time we got home John realised that the issue with the double payments still needed to be bought up with the bank again, after the fraud squad refused to help us. So he had to go through the whole process again to be able to reach the bank... this time we got a young bloke who actually knew his stuff and could explain to John that for some reason, double payments taken out until they go through their paperwork and see what you actually put in against what you were charged for and it’s rectified...They do this because too many are driving away not paying, but over here most servos have credit card pay stations that you have to put in your credit card first before the bowser will work... no human intervention just machines... sometimes it just doesn’t work other times it does...

Anyway after the young fellow had explained it all to John it made sense, and we have since got back the extra amount taken out…shame all their staff don’t understand this process…. would save a lot of hassle and what we thought was free calls on Whatsapp have actually been 2x$50 calls... glad we have sorted out the issue but not the costs incurred that should have been covered as a Westpac customer, especially when it says it’s a 24/7 call centre, no mention it costs a fortune... however we now have credit cards to use again... travelling without a credit card is not possible these days... got scary there for a bit.Read more