Using your credit cards in UK

Written By: SP, 15 Jun 2006

Ms K always complained that I did not write much entry on our blog or make any comments on her entries. Well, I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you our experience yesterday in Lindsay House.

We went to a restaurant yesterday with 2 of my best buddies from HK, together with their wives to be. I thought this is a rare opportunity to have them together in this sad city (according to Mr SZ) hence I've really look forward to this dinner and booked into a well respectable chef restaurant that is fit to cook for the Queen's birthday. I shall leave the food and waiter service to Ms K to comment.

So we need to fast forward 5 hours to around 12am on 15th June 2006, we asked for our bill and it came to a total of £765.90 for six of us. Yes, it’s very expensive given the quality of service on that night but I have to admit we had a good time and have a room for ourselves. Again that for Ms K to comment. I made a gesture to the waiter that I'm taking the bill. Don't get any ideas; I pay it with my HSBC MasterCard (CC) first and settle the bill later with the 2 big bosses later. I'm very confident that my CC has the sufficient amount because I've checked it 5 mins before I leave for the restaurant.

As you might have guessed, the transaction was declined. Initially, Ms K thought I was drunk and entered the wrong PIN number. Well, she might be right that we have drank a little too much that night but I'm sure I know what I entered on those wireless EFTPOS machine and I'm not drunk!  So I asked for 2nd try and it was declined again. I think then Ms K was a bit worried about the state I'm in and she volunteered to use her card even though her card is link to the same account! And it failed again....then I think its Mr SZ made a comment that it must be the machine as we have million £ limit in our account so the waiter was reluctantly change a different EFTPOS machine. I've tried again on the 2nd machine, doesn't work. The waiter offer to reduce the transaction into smaller amounts, doesn't work. Ms VL offer to use her CC, doesn't work. Mr SZ offer to use his GOLD CC, doesn't work. I think at this stage, I can guess the waiter was thinking "we don't need anymore illegal immigrants in this restaurant to wash dishes or cleaning the toilets, 999 only will delay him to close down the restaurant for the night.....so what can I do with these bunch of Asian looking (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese????) People who does not have money to pay for their bills"

I was about to use my trusted Australian Visa card but then I just thought that the card rental still have a lock of £1100 on my card and need couple of days before they going to release my credits on my CC so I did not offer to use my card. Ms VL came to the rescue with her multi-millions limit Visa card. Bang - it want through straight away and the waiter made a comment "well, it looks like someone has money in their account" That is so humiliating, I'm sure he doesn't mean it but it doesn't sound like a joke either. But what can we do, so we just quietly leave the restaurant. But just to get repay for the waiter comment, SZ and I decided to go to fire hose their toilet! But I determined to find out the truth of the declination of my CC with HSBC tomorrow.

So this morning I dropped down to a HSBC branch near my work so I can avoid the long queue during lunch time. The lady over the desk is very helpful and she looks pretty good and sexy too! hehehehe. I told her of my ordeal with my CC with the restaurant yesterday and handed my card over to her. She brought up information and said there is no restriction on my card and it seems that I have enough fund to cover the bill. So she picked up the phone and ring HELP-LINE. For security reason she only allow to tell the lady over the phone my CC number, tell her my problem and then she need to pass over the phone to me. As usual, couple of security checks to verify they are talking to THE Mr SP. After that she scroll through my CC transactions and saw a lot of declines from the previous day and tell me the reason for the declines are due to my abnormal spending pattern and they have a security check in place which will automatically decline all payments if you have a sudden spike in your value of your CC transaction. I guess this is pretty good as you don't want your girlfriend to spend your money on the CC you given them when they get pissed at you because you are late to a dinner or forget their birthday. But then I never offended Ms K and she will never do that as she always had said "my money is her money, and her money is her money" so she will not spend her money like it’s not money!

So I politely asked the lady over the phone to remove that security check as it really inconvenience for me and of course there will be plenty of time that I will spend a similar amount to take Ms K to dinner and cannot afford to have another humiliating scene again. However, she said she cannot do anything as it’s in a security process and all she can tell me is that every time if I going to spend a large amount of money on the CC, I shall ring them to let them know so the system will approve the transaction. WTF!!! First I thought, she was joking and I asked her, so if I want to go a restaurant, I shall give you a call. She replied "Yes, sir. Just give us a call and we will noted down on the system and everything should be fine. And if you want, you can ring us after you get a decline on the CC" WTF again, I guess she never been to a restaurant or she always carrying cash load of cash with her to a restaurant and hoping that the bill does not exceed her cash on hand. OR asking for permission to what she allows to order the menu from the HELP-LINE before the waiter can take her orders. I'm so furious that I'm asking her if this is HSBC process or MasterCard process because either way, I'm changing bank or CC.

Do you believe this, I'm spending my own money on my CC (well technically not my money) and I'm not allowed to spend it just because the stupid security check system they have in place. In essence I understanding the need for the security in place but to this stupid extend, the person behind this idea should be shot! Even back home in my Skippy land, the bank actually gives me a call and asked me if I have in the last couple of minutes trying to use my CC on a particular purchase.  And for this city, one of the top financial hubs in the world, telling me I should give them a call before I use my CC which is going to be out of my normal spending pattern! Well, I guess to work around this problem is to take Ms K to a very expensive restaurant for the next 2 months, just to get my spending pattern that looks like a millionaire. Hahahaha....remind of me of a book I should have read (recommended to me by Mr SZ)...."you should think and spend like a millionaire before you become one"