It’s through the alert us button that Geoffrey* shares his story with us. This Monday, he is going to Munich as part of his work. Arriving around 9 p.m., he decides to go to the hotel restaurant for supper. But once the hour of pain has arrived, something is wrong.
None of his cards are working, and he has no cash on him. He explains to us: “The hotel room was in my name but reserved by a company. The reservation was therefore not linked to my card. When I wanted to pay for my meal, my credit card and my ING debit card were both refused. I repeated the operation four to five times, without success. And impossible to put the note on my room, since it was not I who paid for this part”
The situation is already quite embarrassing, but it does not stop there. “They suggested that I go and withdraw money from an ATM (a cash machine) which was in the hotel. But nothing helps, my card is also refused”.
“I don’t know what I would have done…”
Geoffrey doesn’t understand why. “My note was around forty euros, nothing exceptional. I checked my accounts to make sure there was no problem. There were none. My credit card limit hadn’t been reached, far from it, and I had money in my checking account. »
“I have never been so ashamed in my life,” he adds. Finally, Geoffrey is saved by a colleague who arrives at the hotel at this time and who agrees to settle his bill. “I was able to wire him immediately through the app and it worked. On the other hand, I did not know how to use my cards of the evening. I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t arrived at that precise moment…”
Contacted the next day, an ING manager explained to Geoffrey that it was “probably a network problem” since no other problem was observed on his accounts. If he hears the explanation put forward, he always wonders what he could have done without the intervention of his colleague.