Smallworld, Azimo, Etc.

[andesmandes]

... and a year later

 

[Dada]

If your bank account is in the UK, have you asked your bank to authorize using your card in Argentina? My UK bank (HSBC) requires that. Every time I go somewhere outside Europe I must go there and inform them where and for how long, so they unlock it. And even then, only about 1 of 5 ATMs in BsAs is able to give me money, but that's another story.

 

[datson2000]

In my case, yes my bank has approved the use of the card offshore. I used the same UK debit card to book an Azimo transfer. When I called UK Citi they said they had never heard of an instance where a vendor had taken it upon themselves to deny the use of a debit card from offshore. This made me a little suspect about Smallworld in terms of legitimacy however my money was refunded (a week later).

 

[semigoodlookin]

If your bank account is in the UK, have you asked your bank to authorize using your card in Argentina? My UK bank (HSBC) requires that. Every time I go somewhere outside Europe I must go there and inform them where and for how long, so they unlock it. And even then, only about 1 of 5 ATMs in BsAs is able to give me money, but that's another story.

Yeah, first thing I did was called my bank to find out if that was the case. They had not blocked it.

Spoke to Azimo on the phone now and they told me the same thing. Seems like a new rule they have for transactions through debit cards, although both the guy at Smallworld and the girl from Azimo told me that the system does let some slip through, like my first Smallworld transaction.

 

[Bwell]

I had the same problem with Azimo a few months ago no problem with Lloyds bank I even phoned Azimo and they said there was no problem with my card but the website still rejects it to this day I pay by bank transfer using on line banking its really easy and if I say its easy its easy just click bank transfers when they reject your card and they will give you a code and of you go I assume you can phone your bank and give them the code using the telephone banking system Lloyds charge me £5 to do this good luck.

 

[datson2000]

A few people have suggested changing the proxy to mask your IP/location, supplanting a UK IP address when paying by debit card. I will try this next transfer in a few weeks using my 'Hola' app although if someone is able to do this earlier and confirm it works for Smallworld on this thread that would be awesome.

 

[datson2000]

Did an Azimo run yesterday. They had 2 $50 peso bills in what should have been a stack of $100's. Not a catastrophic amount but be careful in case skimming is happening at the Argpenar offices.