Be sure and check your bank balance daily upon return!!

[Delcey]

I know travellers cheques are now out of style but wish they were not. Maybe a pain in the arse for some but the security of having them was worth the pain and worry in my humble opinion. I am not comfortable to use the ATM's at the bank or other locations in foreign. When I travel I am happy for anything that relieves the stress of being away from home.

[Marko]

been using mi Debit ATM cards since who knows when here.......probably since the late 80's or early 90's
mi use mi American Debit Cards all da time here and never had a problem........
these days mi use them primarily at HiLo, ValueMaster and Quality Traders....takes food to live here....lol
rarely at da NCB ATM by HiLo....which mi have used since the 90's.......without a problem
never used the Scotia Banks ATM's.....and only a couple times the NCB ATM by ValueMaster......

Cool Runnings, Marko

[gregandkelly63]

In 15 trips to Jamaica I have never used a debit or credit card while on the island. I take them in case of emergency, but have never had to use them.

I have mentioned this on here before and was flamed for carrying cash, but I have a method that works for me and I will continue to use it. All of my cash is never in one place and is never out of my site.

[Rumlover]

Just curious if the cards that were hacked had the new chip in them or not. I have seen reports of how someone can electronically steal your card info if close enough to it. Men's wallets are typically in spots someone can stand very near. I do use a debit card for cash and fortunately have never had an issue. I did have a problem once with a credit card I only used at the airport but you are not responsible for bogus charges on a credit card. It was quickly caught and we were alerted and cancelled the card.

[captaind & Linston]

I had the same thing happen during the first week of the year. The ATM card we use is from Schwab brokerage.

Here's the scenario:

A withdrawal made on New Year's eve suddenly appeared twice on the the internet activity page.
Oddly, both had the same transaction number. However, one was an ATM withdrawal and the other showed as POS (point of sale) transaction.
It being the holiday I couldn't get in touch with Schwab until the following Monday.
When I spoke with them and their fraud/forensic department they were unaware of the issue but immediacy refunded the second (POS) transaction
I told them I needed to make another withdrawal and they told me to go ahead and they would monitor.
On Tuesday the same thing happened so I called again
At that time they told me that it was happening to all ATM transactions in the Caribbean and South America and was being investigated.
All ATM and CC purchases in the Carribbean and South America are processed at a facility in Brazil..
By Friday the problem had been solved and has not occurred again. They blamed it on a sofware glitch.

Interesting conjecture on my part:

1. I fund the Jamaica card on an "as needed" basis and it is not tied to any other source of funds and I transfer the funds by hand on the 'Net
2. In the interim I only have 10 bucks or so in that account. This can be done is seconds by way of the internet.
3. The first double withdrawal took the balance down to a negative number which is impossible without a secondary backup account
4. The "software glitch" explanation make no sense. I've been using this system for several years with no problem.
5. COMPUTER CODE CANNOT REWRITE ITSELF !
6. Possibly a code error due to the change in year? Remeber Y2K?
7. "All now" There has never been an explanation of these events
8. I think it was a hack at the processing facility but it's hard to figure who benefited.

That's what I know. Everything is back to normal

Cap

[541lion]

Rumlover I've heard that about the microchip cards as well! That's why mine is sitting here unactivated..

[Ras Walleye]

Lisa, I've tried and was denied because I was not a Canadian citizen.

[Lola]

Captain, I experienced a similar NYE glitch, also with a Schwab card. (I called them NY Day, they are staffed 24/7). At midnight it repeated the transaction at the then-current exchange rate, Schwab said it looked like a machine error. The transaction description is different than my withdrawal but reads like the same place. The fraud dept issued a provisional credit on the 6th. I also thought about Y2K.

A credit card account was hit TWICE in the past year with fraudulent store purchases, both times it was at a physical store in the US (different stores/states), and two purchases made.

[Bnewb]

Lisa, I've tried and was denied because I was not a Canadian citizen.

Ras...the Scotia Bank in Canada or Jamaica?

[Ras Walleye]

Canada, I called and asked about setting up a account and they said as a citizen of the US I was not eligible. But that was 5 or 6 years ago, maybe it's changed.