Anger at credit-card glitch

By Chris Barton and Helen Vause

Many ANZ credit card customers travelling overseas last month were left angry and inconvenienced when their cards were declined while paying hotel and shopping bills.

ANZ Cards manager Sue Lawrence acknowledged there had been "a slight increase" in calls from travellers who had their cards intermittently declined.

She said it was not yet clear what caused the problem, but investigations were underway with both Visa and the bank's authorisation service provider EDS.

Sue Lawrence said all complaints to date were with Visa cardholders and that Visa had upgraded some network lines during that period, resulting in the links being "out for a short time."

Visa NZ country manager Daniel Jeffares said he was not aware of any systemic issue with New Zealand Visa card handling. He said an upgrade to Visanet last month was to add more capacity and an alternative link should the existing link fail.

He said any outages caused by that upgrade process would have been in the order of minutes or hours, not days, and would have affected all Visa cardholders, not just ANZ Bank cards.

EDS New Zealand, which handles ANZ's card authorisation service, acknowledged there had been "some impacts to services" and that there were "some issues to be worked through".

Staff at a local ANZ branch speaking to an unhappy customer last week said they had heard plenty of stories about travellers being inconvenienced.

"So many people are coming home telling us about problems they had with their cards that we are warning people to organise other means of payment. One family had payment declined with their card in Bali for a hotel bill and had to call their branch back here for help. We thought the credit card people would put out a statement by now."

ANZ Cards customer services staff also told of a more widespread problem: "Yes, we've had lots of calls. You were one of the lucky ones. There has been something wrong with the authorisation links on and off for the last few weeks. Some days they are okay and some days they haven't been. Europe has not been so bad but it has been sheer desperation for some people who have found themselves in strife stranded in South America or having big hassles in south-east Asia."

Sue Lawrence said there were many reasons why credit cards might be declined overseas, but that the bank was monitoring complaints to see if the number received was statistically significant. Meanwhile it was preparing a mailout to be included with bank statements explaining precautions to take when travelling overseas. These included having alternative forms of payment such as travellers cheques, and other cards. It also suggested loading PIN numbers on credit or international debit cards before leaving so cash could be obtained from ATM machines.

When a transaction is declined customers should immediately record the date, time, place, and if possible, the electronic message explaining the transaction failure - information that will help sort out the problem on their return home.

Customers should also make use of the card's international toll free help number for assistance. While this will not enable the electronic transaction to proceed, it may help to give assurance to the retailer for authorisation of an offline "zip-zap" paper transaction or to try the card again later. However, many overseas retailers and hotels no longer use offline transactions.

Recent statements to ANZ card holders have carried the following: "If you are experiencing card problems we thank you for your patience and advise that resolutions are being implemented."