So, this happened the other day.
I have never lost my credit card or personal stuff in my life. Yet the other morning I woke up and noticed that some money was missing from my account. I checked and checked again and surely something was off.
As one can imagine I quickly checked for my card and sure enough, it was gone. Where and how it vanished… I do not know. All I knew is that my card was gone, and my account was missing money. I got my stuff together and quickly ran off to the nearest BCA branch. Now things in Indonesia do not always roll the same way or play out at the same speed as those in North America. This does not mean they are always slower but they sure are different.
The first Bank BCA.
After reaching the first branch I was told I would need to go back to Jakarta to get help with this. I was upset and knew that this could not possibly be right! I was told it would be an hour’s wait if I wanted to talk to someone and I didn’t have an hour to spare here!
How would anyone in a major city or the country for that matter be able to conduct business in such a way? I was upset, anxious, and nervous as more money might go missing the longer I wait.
Off to the next branch, I happened to arrive at a nearly empty location. I was the third one in line and managed to speak to customer service.
Finally, my anxiety and probably my blood pressure all dropped to near-normal levels. Indonesia is a mixed bag of tricks and sometimes things get done amazingly quickly and sometimes… They barely get done at all.
This was quick and painless.
The process was to call online banking through an app. The app call kept getting dropped. Each time I was near completion of the verification of my data the call dropped. After a landline call from the Bali branch to the Jakarta branch, I was able to get my account moved from Jakarta to Bali and block my old card as well as receive and activate a new card. All this in a matter of minutes once the verification was taken care of. My local Balinese BCA customer service agent was quick and very understanding of my situation.
There was a sense of urgency and action from the local staff. Way to go BCA Bali! At least this branch was amazingly good at the service. The charge for the whole ordeal of moving the account and a new card was $2 Canadian.
My online banking. the mobile app and the new card were all in working order after an hour and a half of reaching the BCA branch. I must say, I lost about $800 but at least I got this all over and done within a matter of hours. They say it had to be skimming or some form of digital fraud, but all that is now behind me…
Zsolt Zsemba 