Back in the Philippines with Money Issues

I spent three weeks total in the Philippines, one at the beginning of August, one at the end of August beginning of September and one at the end of September. I had no issues using the ATM's in SM Clark during my first two stays in AC, however on the third i was given a suprise by my bank. Knowing that i was returning to the Philippines I had converted most of my cash (with the exception of 6 dollars) with the knowledge that I could just run to SM Clark and use an ATM if I needed more money, or for larger purchases use my Visa (all issued by the same bank).

Part of my plan was to head to Boracay for a Saturday through Monday, and return to Manila from Boracay to head home on Tuesday. I booked with the travel agent in the hotel on Friday for two people to go to boracay, hotel and flights for 15K peso, it was a package deal and worked out to be the easiest for me. Once everything was arranged the travel agent let me know that everything needed to be paid by 2PM. I said no problem and headed over to SM Clark to use the ATM. I used the first ATM and got the message to contact my Financial institution, having gotten this message in the past, i simply went to another ATM as I had in the past and the problem should be resolved, i went to the next atm and got the same message, and again at the third and fourth, not sure what was going on, i paid attention to the message at the fourth ATM and realized i was attempting to withdrawal more than the maximum allowed by the ATM. Damn, i blocked my card and would need to call my bank to unblock the card, i went back to the travel agent and let her know what i had done and she was cool, i asked her if their were any alternatives, and she said she could run it through as a visa payment, cool, i handed her my card and was willing to suck up the 7.5% fee attached to the credit card purchase. My card came back declined, shit, this isn't good, the block from using the ATMs wouldn't affect a visa purchase, at this point i've got a minimal amount of peso's in my pocket and not nearly enough to pay for the trip. I tell the travel agent that i need to contact my bank, but that they won't be open for another 7 hours cause their based in the US and don't have any type of after hours support. She was comfortable with that and said she would leave the tickets and info at the receptionist of the hotel and to just leave the money for the tickets their and they would release them to me when i paid.

At 8:00 i called my bank and made sure that their was not issues, their was a block on my card from trying to withdrawal at too many ATM's, and she did inform me that that should not have affected my Visa purchase. The Visa purchase was explained to me by customer service to be declined due to an update to the system, some kind of maintenance and upgrade to the system they were attempting to do when it wouldn't inconvenience any customers. This i took as complete bull shit but the card was working again and thats all i cared about. So now that that was fixed it was back to SM clark to use the atm again. This time i got the same message, this wasn't making sense, why was my card still not working, i again tried additional ATM's and after still getting the same message to contact my financial institution i called the bank again. This time, as with each time i called i advised them that i was in the Philippines and didn't have a lot of phone time, so of course knowing this the daft cow at customer service put me on hold for 7 minutes. I hung up and called back and got another, ever so pleasant customer service agent who advised me that my bank had placed the Philippines on their blacklist....meaning that all ATM and Visa purchases would not be allowed from that country due to the increased amount of fraud that was emanating from the country. My initial though was Oh Shit....I didn't have enough money on me to pay for to the trip to Boracay, pay for my hotel, take a taxi to the airport, pay the departure fee if their was one, or pay for any food in boracay once we got their....i was trapped in the third world with no money, i didn't even have enough to take a bus back to manila to catch my flight home.

In a panic i immediately start calling family back home, i finally get ahold of my grandfather in Alaska, and he agrees to western union me money. I call him back an hour later and everything is set to pick up. I go to four Western Unions, two are closed and two are out of money, i didn't realize their were so many WU's until Sunday, but its 2AM and I still don't have any money and have been told by the security guard at the two WU's with no money to come back at 8. Shit, i'm supposed to leave for Boracay at 6 AM to catch the 8 AM flight out of Clark. Well looks like i'm not going, i've got to get the money issue resolved before doing anything, hindsight tells me that i probably could have gone to a WU in Boracay. At 8 AM i go to another WU in AC to try to get the wire transfer, not a proficient person with the intricacies of Western Union i wasn't aware i needed the MTCN number, after playing phone tag with my Grandfather for 2 hours i finally get the number i need, fill out the form and submit it for payment. 10 minutes later the clerk tells me that he cannot find the payment, i tell him to check again. Now another wave of panic comes over me, I call my grandfather back and review the receipt with him, and low and behold we find the problem, the money went to Poland. He goes back to the Western Union, hoping its not closed at this point to try to get this fixed, only he doesn't go to the WU where he did the transfer from, he calls me back to let me know that he's not able to get this resolved until morning. A side note with a lot of irony, the clerk at the western union in the US was Filipino. The plot thickens, the town my grandfather lives in is having a festival that starts on Saturday and the town essentially closes down for it, so this may not get resolved in Monday. Now this sends me into a panic attack...i'm stuck, and a monday resolution means late monday night before the transfer can be fixed, leading possibly into to Tuesday Philippines time (theirs a 16 hour time difference between where my grandfather is and the philippines) and my flight leaves 6:30 AM Tuesday.

In a state of panic all afternoon (waiting for morning in the US), i pace around the hotel until 8 PM so that i can call another family member to attempt another wire transfer in the off chance that the one my grandfather sent doesn't come through. I get ahold of my father to send money, he graciously (even though i woke him up) went out and did it right away. My luck was beginning to change, i check back in with him an hour and a half later and the transfer has gone through, i get the MTCN number and were good to go. As i get around to head out to the WU, i get another phone call a couple hours later that the transfer my grandfather had sent has gone through. Its now after midnight and I'm ready to head out and collect, again the same situation as the night before, only this time all the WU's are closed. This is really starting to get old.

Sunday Morning has now come and I'm still without a means to pay for anything at this point. I have informed the hotel of my situation, and they are very understanding, this morning they have agreed to help me find a WU that is open, and has money. Jackpot they find one. I get a trike and a member of the hotel staff goes with me, as now i have over a 1000 us waiting for me. I get to the Western Union, fill out the necessary forms and 20 minutes later am walking out with money in my pocket. i think i may have even skipped out of the western union, a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

What really chapped my ass through all of this is that my bank didn't even notify of the change, you'd think having used my cards in 11 countries (including the philipines on two different dates) they would have made some sort of notification. Even today i'm still not able to find anything on my banks website to tell me what countries my cards will not work in. As for the trip to Boracay, The person i was taking has been able to rebook for november 9th. I covered those fees upon checking out of the hotel so she's all set.

So next course of action for me is to establish an account at an international bank like HSBC prior to my next visit to make sure that this doesn't happen again.