Dom Pannell's Blog

Cashless in Stockholm

Actually, that's not quite true, but only because I happened to bring a fair amount of cash with me to Sweden, but I could have been scuppered.

I was on my way round to visit my friends Sam & Agneta and their two kids Alex & Emma for dinner yesterday and I popped into Systembolaget to purchase a bottle of wine, I went to pay and my credit card was refused. This being Sweden, the booze shops close at 15:00 on a Saturday for the rest of the evening, so time was against me.

The checkout girl sent me to the ATM just outside the shop, but I couldn't withdraw any cash. My card didn't work in two other machines either, even though I could see other people withdrawing money and I'm pretty sure that I have cash on my card. By now Systemet was closed. No wine.

I can't be sure, of course, because Capital One's online banking is down and has been since yesterday evening.

They've sent me two text messages urging me to call a UK number to authorize my payment, but it's too late. SYSTEMET IS SHUT FOR THE WEEKEND. Capital One has screwed my opportunity of taking a bottle of wine for my hosts. Presumably this is because I am abroad and had the audacity to use my Mastercard to buy something here. Note that I haven't been particularly profligate.

This happened when I was in Spain in March, but then I was able to go online and send Capital One an email asking them to remove the block on my card. This time I can't do that because they're updating their online banking.

In short, the only way to remove the block on my card is to call a UK number, which will undoubtedly cost me a packet.

I think I prefer to wait until I get back to Blighty later today... it's crap though.

Posted by dompannell at July 8, 2007 12:09 PM