Argh: Barclaycard

So, I've been travelling in the states for the past week and about 7 days in my Barclaycard stops working. I'd been hammering it pretty hard so I assumed I'd hit the credit limit. Annoying but undestandable.

When I get back to the UK I call them up hoping they'll increase my credit limit all ready to beg for their kindness.

How quickly my happiness turns to sadness...

"No sir, you have £900 credit left however the fraud department has blocked your card because of some unusual transactions." Argh!

Now let me guess, transactions from the US maybe? Muppets.

The bright eyed call centre person apologies and follows that up with a "we did try to call you". I think the key word here is "try".

I have no voicemail and anyway I was in America!

This must be about the 4th or 5th time this has happened to me whilst travelling and it's f-ing annoying to find yourself both embarassed and financially challenged in a foreign country.

I understand credit card fraud is an issue so why not email me saying "are these your transactions?" click yes within 12 hours or we'll suspend your card or text me or actually ring me or something. Argh!

So, I'm now going to become a churn statistic for Company Barclaycard. Another fine example of how to totally piss off your customers.

Actually, I'll wait 48 hours to see if a bottle of nice wine appears with an apology but I'm not holding my breadth. They'd probably rather watch me churn and then spend several hundreds of pounds on marketing activity to try and win me and my 10 friends back. Argh!