While in Egypt I learned about the hazards of ATM machines. I arrived on a weekend and the ATM at my hotel was mostly empty, I managed to get about 70 pounds out of it. I also came home to find a $50 withdrawl from my bank account on the same day when I tried to get more money out but when no money actually came out. My bank did reimburse me for that money. I was thankful that I had brought a fair amount of cash with me as well as some travelers cheques. My roommate Tara (not the one that I'm going to Hawaii with) had much bigger problems...
The day she left she notified her bank that she was going to Egypt so that they wouldn't block her ATM card, they failed to mention to her that they already had a fraud alert on the card and the card was already blocked, opps! She came to Egypt and couldn't get money out of the ATM, at first she thought it was just the 1 or 2 ATM's, but finally in Aswan she checked the internet and realized that she had this block on her account.
I went with her to get a phone card to call the bank and we tried to figure out how to work the thing, but it wasn't happening. Then we tried Ed's cell phone, that didn't work either. Finally she as able to get through using my international phone - the 20 minute conversation only cost $60. The bank straightened it out and assured her that her ATM card would work, though there would be a lower then usual daily limit. We waited a few hours and went to the ATM machine - it ate her card - it went in but it didn't come out and neither did money.
Tara took it like a trooper and after figuring out the hours of the bank we went shopping. Back on our ship a little while later we ran into our Tour Manager and one of the ships crew. We were told that "the ATM was hungry," not an uncommon thing at night in Egypt - ouch! The next day we used our little bit of free time before our ship left Aswan to get the ATM card back. We seemed to be interrupting the bank guy who was counting piles of cash, but we kept nagging him and finally got it back - but not before he made us walk across the street twice for photocopies. But Tara got her ATM card back and the next time she used it she actually got money out, she also got reimbursed for the cell phone call to the bank.
The lesson: don't count only on ATM machines.
