Credit card system problems over extended days.

Prior to leaving for a trip to the US I informed Standard Bank Credit Card

1) the exact period I would be away 2) that I would be visiting Washington and NYC and 3) that Dubai would be the connecting flight city to the US on xx Oct and back from it on xx Oct.

On my arrival in the US the first Std Bank Credit Card transaction was rejected as was the second one I tried two days later.

Luckily it was not the only credit card facility that I had overseas so I was able to circumvent the embarrassment of having a transaction again rejected by Standard Bank by utilizing, without a problem, the other credit card. Thank you dear ***X.

On returning and enquiring about the dynamics that eventuated in these embarrassing rejections I was told it must have been a "system problem" and that if I had phoned them at the time, from the USA, they could have addressed the problem.

Due to the costs involved I did not have roaming connection but for academic reasons let us set that scenario.

Ring ring ….

This is Standard Bank your preferred financial advisor for security reasons this conversation might be recorded press 1 if you want to report a ****** card, press 2 if you want to question a transaction on your account press 3 if you want to increase your credit facility, press 4 if you think we might have a system problem press 5 if you want to speak to one of our consultants.

From thousands of miles away I press 5 and get to hear : we are currently experiencing high call volumes so please be patient and we will be with you shortly x 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 etc etc after each repeat of this message the phone reverts back to Mozart's Requiem.

Lesson learned is when you travel overseas always have a back up credit card from an alternative bank that does not have system problems extending over days.

As a client of decades Standard Bank let me down and as for that "system problem" excuse, if it is true its problems are obviously far bigger than the rejection of my credit card transactions.