I authorised my credit card for international use in India and Dubai from 19 - 31 August 2013. I specified I could only be reached via SMS during the travel time as I would not have email. My credit card worked for 1.5 days before being blocked from POS transactions. Apart from the embarrasment of having my card declined, I had to find ATMs in rural India, with an added taxi cost. I contacted FNB card division at my own expense while there and they assured me the card was authorised and there was no problem. But the card did not work until about 6 days later when I reached Mumbai. When I returned to SA on 2 September I saw an email from FNB Analyst Thulasizwe Hlongwane asking me to call them in SA to authenticate transactions on my credit card. Surely FNB should KNOW about the authorisation, travel dates, to contact me via SMS and should not just block transactions? This happended before when I traveled to Singapore & Australia in 2009 and Thailand in 2011. What is the point in Authorisations when FNB's differenct card departments do not speak to each other or share information. I complained to Thulasizwe Hlongwane about this and s/he has still not bothered to respond.
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