A couple of years ago, along with millions of other frustrated bank customers, I ditched my bank and moved to a credit union. I've been pretty happy with them up 'til I started setting up a trip to England which we intend to take next summer. At that point I bumped into the most provincial, 19th century process I've come across in a long time. Tucson Federal Credit Union does not appear to recognize the concept of international finance. Although I finally wrestled my transaction through using pure brute strength, it left me in need of providing feedback to the credit union. 

In keeping with my promise to blog on my ongoing customer service experiences, I give you the following missive which is being snail-mailed because...well...read the letter:

Tucson Federal Credit Union

Attn: Manager, Credit Card Fraud Dept.

PO Box 42435

Tucson, AZ 85733-2435

Dear Fraud Manager,

Your process is sadly in need of improvement.  In October I discovered, through a painful process of having transactions declined, the need to get pre-approval for a transaction outside the U.S.  Consequently, in anticipation of the need to pay for activities for an upcoming vacation in England next summer, I went into my local branch and had my card opened up for a $2,500 transaction to take place today (Friday December 12). 

•        Because of the time difference I called my English merchant at 6am this morning and gave them my credit card information (1^st contact).  I waited about an hour and checked my account online, and the available credit had not declined.
•         I called your contact center (1^st contact) and discovered that the merchant “fat-fingered” the expiration date with a “6” instead of a “5”, so the transaction was declined, and the ability to make the English transaction was terminated due to this failure. The agent with whom I spoke contacted your credit card folks, verified that this was not a fraudulent transaction and reopened the window to make the transaction. 
•          I called the merchant in England (2^nd contact)…credit card declined. 
•          Back to the call center (2^nd contact) to be told that it takes a little time to reopen the window for approval, but it should now be open.  Thanks – if I had known that on my first contact with your agent, I could have waited and saved my third call of the morning to England.
•          Once again I call England (3^rd contact). Tell them I will wait on hold while they process the information one more time.  Transaction clears…hooray!!

And so we’re done.  But wait.  I get home from running errands to be handed a phone message that I got an automated fraud message for the credit card. 

•          I call the fraud number and go through an automated process verifying my identification and then it starts asking me about transactions I made. 
•          It asks me did I make a transaction for $2471.xx?  Press one if you did. I press one. 
•          Then it asks did I make a transaction for $2471.xx?  Now I’m a little concerned – did this transaction process twice? But I press one.
•         Then it asks did I make a transaction for $2471.xx?  Now I’m really concerned – has this thing been processing every time we try and nobody knows? What the heck?  But if I say no, I may have to start the entire transaction process all over again, so I press one, and the automated system says: “Thank you. The hold on your account has now been lifted and you may continue using your card.” 

Wait a minute! Hold on the account?  Didn’t I go through multiple blankity-blank phone calls (not to mention the personal appearance with the original customer service rep at my branch that I thought would take care of the whole shootin’ match) to pre-approve and satisfy the fraud monster? Plus, at this point I don’t know what’s been processed, how many transactions – now I’m peeved.  So….

•          I call your call center (3rd contact). Your agent tells me that the fraud alert was triggered because of the size of the transaction, and this automatically put a hold on the account.  That being the case, help me understand why I went through an extremely long and annoying process to get this transaction set up, which included providing the amount of the transaction to you, so that there would not be any issues.

This activity has now cost me several hours of my time including (but not limited to), a personal visit to my local branch, 3 calls to England, 3 to your contact center, and my temper which I have lost completely.  TCFU and I appear to be complete idiots, and have no doubt perpetuated the ongoing mythology about provincial Americans and the wild, wild, west that is already pernicious across Europe.

At this point I have no faith in my ability to travel outside the US with this card. I am now actively looking for a Visa card that understands what century we are in, and is a bit more capable of managing my international travel without me spending the majority of my vacation on the phone with you trying to explain various transactions. Once I have another card – explain to me why I might want to keep yours.

And, oh by the way, what kind of an experience am I going to have with my TFCU debit card when I try and get cash in England or on the continent?  I moved to TFCU because I really don’t want to do business with banks, and I flat refuse to walk in the door of a money-center giant. But if this is the best I can expect in terms of lining up with my lifestyle, perhaps I need to start shopping for a local bank that can handle an occasional international sortie without locking down my financial life.

Yours in extreme frustration,

Stephanie Bader