Category: Life

Yup, I complain about banks. But as ever in fairness, good and professional customer treatment deserves a mention also. Step up Lloyds TSB.

This evening I was checking my mail when I got a message from my dad with two scanned pages attached. Somehow my Lloyds account had gone over my overdraft limit. Strange as I’ve not touched the account in at least a year. The last transaction was a minute interest payment (of about 1p) in March.

So I went to the online banking for the first time in… I don’t know how long. And discovered about 10 transactions from September 8th to September 25th, all in Malaysia.

I ran back to my hotel room and, yup, the card was gone. I kept it in a bag within a bag, so someone had been rooting to find it. They’d also left my Advanced PADI card and a credit card in the same compartment untouched. I’d simply not checked on the card in ages as I don’t use it – it’s a backup in case my Nationwide card gets pinched.

Needless to say I’m mystified how they were using it. It actually looks like ATM withdrawals which is astounding as nobody could know my PIN. It wasn’t written down (I’ve never written it down since I selected it), I couldn’t have been overlooked using it and it couldn’t have been “skimmed” – the last two simply as I’ve not used the card since Thailand over two years ago, as far as I can recall.

Bizarre.

Well, I called the stolen card number. Of the twenty minutes I was on the phone, I spent maybe three in total on hold. The rest of the time I was talking to someone to get my card blocked, and then to another person sorting out a refund of the fees and a “fraud” form that I need to sign.

Thankfully, as my passport proves, I was in Indonesia for all but one of the withdrawals. I also think I can prove I was in a different part of Malaysia when that one withdrawal went through. I have a feeling they’re all in Kuala Lumpur and I was in Tanah Rata on the 8th.

With any luck, they’ll try to use the blocked card again somewhere and get caught. A shame that, even though it’s a Muslim country, I don’t think Malaysia chops hands off thieves any more. I know I’d like ten minutes in a locked cell with the *****.

Thing is, this makes three visits to Kuala Lumpur and two thefts – I had my PSP swiped on my last stopover. Somehow I have a better vibe about Lloyds TSB than Kuala Lumpur these days.