BofA ATM-only cards no good overseas

I was reviewing my old copies of ITN to tear out and file articles for future reference when I came across Alan Groudan’s letter (March ’16, pg. 12) regarding his Bank of America ATM card failure in Europe in July 2015. His new ATM-only card worked in the United States but did not work in Europe. This brought to mind an incident regarding my own ATM-only card.

My wife and I are also Bank of America (BofA) customers, and we travel out of the country often. Right before a 6-week trip to Scotland and London in April-June 2015, my checking account had a possible security compromise.

I immediately contacted BofA and was transferred to the division that investigates fraud. The investigator advised me to close that BofA checking account and open a new one. 

I was concerned that my old BofA ATM/debit card would be made invalid and that there wouldn’t be enough time to receive my new card before our departure in two days. We had planned to use my ATM/debit card.

My wife suggested that we could always use her BofA ATM-only card, which was linked to her checking account. However, the investigator stated that her ATM-only card would not work outside of the US. He said that only ATM/debit cards can be used internationally.

That was certainly a surprise to us because we had always taken my wife’s ATM-only card as a backup to my ATM/debit card when traveling out of the country.

I did as the investigator recommended. I authorized closing my BofA checking account and visited a local BofA branch office to open a new account. My new ATM/debit card was shipped priority mail and arrived just before our departure. I was able to use it throughout Scotland and London to withdraw money from my new checking account.

We took along my wife’s ATM-only card just to see if she could use it to withdraw money while we were in Europe. It didn’t work at any of the locations we tried, including banks that had partnerships with BofA. She did, however, use it successfully to withdraw money after we were back in the US.

I think the problem Mr. Groudan had with his ATM card had nothing to do with which account he was trying to withdraw money from. The problem was that he had a BofA ATM-only card, something that could not be used internationally. If he had used a BofA ATM/debit card, I think he would have been successful in his international withdrawals.

Interestingly, when we later questioned BofA customer service personnel about using an ATM-only card internationally, they did not know it wouldn’t work. When my wife told them of our experience, they seemed surprised.

Several years ago, before BofA started issuing ATM/debit cards as the “default,” our ATM-only cards DID work internationally. When my wife was given the chance to replace her card with an ATM/debit card, she opted to keep her ATM-only card. At that time, she did tell a bank representative that she would be using the card internationally, but she was never told there would be a problem.

GORDON KITCHENS

Atlanta, GA