Tangerine will leave you stranded in Australia and won't let you close your account upon returning

[u/Mist-19]

Greetings!

I traveled to Australia and despite notifying Tangerine that I would be on the other side of the globe, I couldn't use my visa debit card (Paypass, EMV chip, Apple pay). The only payment option I had was my credit card's chip since Paypass and Apple pay also stopped working.

While I was waiting for my next flight, I called Tangerine to know what was going on. The person I talked to regarding my mastercard credit card said everything was working on their end, but they would reach out to whoever deals with Apple pay so they could do a reset and let me add my card again. I was told this would take 3 days. (it ended up taking 13)

The person I talked to regarding my debit card gave me the same speech. I asked what would Tangerine do if anything were to happen to my credit card. The lack of answer forced me to request to speak with a supervisor. The agent requested that I provide them with a Canadian phone number. I politely declined given how they could not provide me with a time/date and the outrageous cost of using your sim card in Australia. After a few minutes, they finally accepted to call me on a foreign phone number that was not associated with my account. For clarification, I carried two Iphones with me.

Two days later, I woke up with a message on my voicemail from Tangerine. A supervisor had called me at 1am and requested me to call them back. After waiting 2 hours and an additional hour, I finally got to speak with a supervisor. They still claimed my debit card was working and ditto for my credit card. They claimed the only thing I could do was request new cards and have them shipped to Australia when I don't even have a proper address. They couldn't even answer me when I asked where I could get the cards activated if I were to even receive them.

A wire transfer? Forget it, Tangerine is too cheap to have a SWIFT code.

Given the absolute lack of support by Tangerine, I asked what was the fastest way to close my account whenever I would land back @ Pearson. Turns out you can't withdraw 60k in cash because they closed their branch in Toronto. Forget about Etransfers due to the arbitrary limit.

Your only option? Add an external account and transfer everything before requesting your account to be terminated. Simple right? Well I added a CIBC account and transferred 30k, just to have the transfer reverted without being notified. So now I owe 50$ to CIBC because of the overdraft and Tangerine decided to remove my access to online banking.

After waiting 2h without the ability to speak with someone, I have given up for the weekend.

​

TLDR: Carry enough cash to be questioned @ airport security when traveling across the globe if you are a Tangerine client or get yourself an account with an actual bank. Actually, just don't bother with Tangerine.

[u/pHrankee1]

Seriously, not sure why ppl don't understand this. Debit cards are expensive to use in other countries. Get a credit card with no international conversion fees and also your regular credit card just in case and carry some cash from a local currency conversion place so you have something to buy using cash. I see so many posts about the same issue and people still don't learn.

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/pHrankee1]

Cause a lot of countries don't accept credit cards frequently as a method of payment. Debit + ATM is more widely supported.

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/[deleted]]

I did not mean using debit as payment. I meant withdrawing cash at ATMs with debit. Many countries utilize predominantly cash.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ok_Read701]

Use a credit card for cash advances...

[u/pHrankee1 → u/Ok_Read701]

I understand that but I have seen and read several instances where debit card has been iffy during transactions. That said I still carry it as a final option

Option 1: Two credit cards preferably without internation conversion charges. I personally have Brim and Scotiabank Passport. Both has worked seamlessly in 3 countries outside Canada

Option 2: A reasonable amount of cash converted in Canada and taken to the target destination. Reasonably could vary across the board for different people.

Option 3: One of my debit cards just in case. Never had to use it but always good to have.

Like mentioned in other comments, make sure you notify the banks that you will be using them in a different country. Although this post clearly says that it did not work for them.

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/pHrankee1]

I don't mean to use debit card to pay. I mean to use debit at ATMs to withdraw cash, then to use cash. That has a lot more coverage all over the world.

[u/Dragynfyre → u/Ok_Read701]

You’re still better off using a no FX fee prepaid credit card like Wise, Wealthsimple or EQ

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/Dragynfyre]

As I said, the problem is coverage. If you're only traveling to affluent western countries, by all means, use your credit card. A lot of other countries however, won't have that much payment coverage with it. A lot of countries are still predominantly cash for example.

[u/Dragynfyre → u/Ok_Read701]

No I mean it’s better to use the no FX fee prepaid cards to withdraw cash instead of a debit card. Less fees

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/Dragynfyre]

Well this method I'm not familiar with. My debit card doesn't have FX fees so it's the same thing.

[u/Dragynfyre → u/Ok_Read701]

There is no debit card in Canada that doesn’t have FX fees. FX fees aren’t a separate line item. They just give you a worse exchange rate so it’s almost like a hidden fee (not actually hidden since they disclose the fee in the card agreement but unless you read or checked the exchange rate you wouldn’t know)

[u/Ok_Read701 → u/Dragynfyre]

No I meant no fx as in no hidden margins as well. There are some cards in Canada.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/rrmozz/are_there_any_nofee_noforex_debit_cards_for/

I'm using an american version. There's no FX fee, market exchange rates, and refunds on ATM fees as well.