It happened. After the years of meticulous planning, the obsessive attention to detail, and generally understanding every little bit of how long-term travel works, I made the mistake. A mess so large that it could quite possibly be in the top 3 travel errors that people find themselves in, and I walked into it so fast that the pain of impact hurt more than I'm willing to admit. We didn't forget to get a visa, and our passports are quite safe. My mistake, as it turns out, was a financial one.My only ATM card expires during our trip, and we leave in one week.
The Routine Call That Was a Major Oops
I have traveled internationally dozens of times in the past 5 years of running this site. I've popped up to Canada so much for my last day job that breezing through customs is second nature to me. It is with these trips that I always go through the horrifyingly boring rounds of packing the trusty suitcase, calling my bank and credit cards to notify about the trip, and go off to board yet another plane.
But this time, it was different.
Ten days before our departure date for a long-term trip around the world, I was heading off to a travel blogger's conference in Toronto. I packed the suitcase, got my passport out, and called my bank. The same tradition I've done countless times before.
As the phone rang for the bank and I was so excitedly prepared to be transferred to India, I noticed something. My bank ATM card was set to expire in March 2014, roughly halfway into our big trip. With muzak from the 1980's blaring in my ear, I had my meltdown. I was screwed.
Thank You For Calling Your Bank, How Can We Not Help You?
You all probably have had this experience. You're on hold with your bank, twenty minutes goes by, and then a call center in India picks up with a worker who claims to be from Chicago. I thought my bank was like this. As I was on hold (the downsides of being a free account holder), I was running the scenarios throughout my head about how this was going to be a horrible conversation and was envisioning many scenes from the movie Outsourced taking place in the background. (Photo "Roubles" by 2happy)
Not only did I have to tell this person that I was traveling internationally for the weekend, I also had to bring up a 1 1/2 year long trip around the world that is never very fun to explain to someone who has never done it before. To make matters worse, I then had to introduce the twist into the picture.
Did I mention we had just moved 3 days prior? Apparently that is significant.
Then, a voice answered. An accent free female who claimed to be from Michigan. Her response when I told her I was from Ohio sealed the deal, no Indian call center for me!
The Convoluted Explanation
When you get to the time that you're calling your bank about your long-term travel plans, or even just a trip out of the country, there is always some hesitation about it. A clear majority of the time no one has any idea what you're doing, and the banking systems are not equipped to handle people who travel longer than a week to two months. It just isn't in their minds.
So my initial request came. A foreign travel notice. Done.
Then the mention of my long-term trip. She's done one and has helped others. Done and noted. How'd that just happen?
Oh, by the way, my card expires. Can I get a new one? Sure, we'll mail it to you.
This is where our moving plans made the conversation a bit awkward.
Apparently our bank cannot mail a new ATM card within 3 days of changing your mailing address. I did not know this until I told our rep that I had changed my address and needed it updated in their system. With only a week left at that point, mailing an ATM card was not going to arrive in time.
Assuming I had a unique case, I was preparing for the worst.
Serendipity Rains and Pours
It turns out that the rep I was working with has dealt with this request a lot. An almost absurd number of times. After a 20 minute tangent about India, we were on our way to getting me a new card. She set it up to mail it to our local branch where I could pick it up in just a few days (three business days to be precise). Painless, simple, and something I would never have thought to ask.
But while getting our ATM card replaced was the goal of the call, the real serendipity came next.
She asked me why I was paying ATM fees. Why am I paying them? You charge me! It turns out my bank (PNC) has a premium checking account that offers free foreign withdrawals at all banks as long as you maintain $1500 in your account on average for the month. Not only can I do that, I would go out of my way to do that to save the $5/withdrawal fee.
After saying "sign me up" about 20 times in the phone in my best Jerry Maguire, she got the message. In all the hustle I didn't even ask what the fee was if I did not maintain $1500 on the month. At the end, I found out. $10 per month. Less than my ATM fees would be anyway by more than half.
And to get all this? All we did was call our bank.
Perhaps you should, too.
Normally this is the point where we would ask you to join our conversation and add to our dialog. In this one particular instance we'd like to ask you to take out your wallets, check the expiration dates of your credit cards, and jot them down somewhere for easy reference. If you are close to expiring or just curious, call your bank and see what your options are.
They're finally getting to where we need them to be.
