I’m really starting to appreciate firms like PowerShop, Vend and Kiwibank. They “get” that given the opportunity, they always want to do right by the user.

Thanks Kiwibank. A mistake was made and you admitted so. You took responsibility. An adult and respectful conclusion was made #winning.

Though I would try to change the ability to take control over Visa/Western Union timeframes.

Either way, I’m not about to jump ship just yet =] Here is the raw response.

Dear Kyle

Thank you for contacting Kiwibank about your experience. I would like to take this opportunity to make sure that we put things right for you. If you would prefer me to contact you by phone, please let me know and I will call you at a preferred time.

Firstly I would like to apologise for the experience you have described. We aim to provide our customers with excellent service when they are travelling overseas and regret we have let you down in this instance.

When you contacted us prior to your trip and notified us that you were travelling overseas, we should have ensured that we loaded every country that you were visiting to prevent this type of experience from happening. I will make sure that this is communicated to our customer service team to prevent any further reoccurrence.

We have a system that monitors all transactions made through credit cards, debit and Visa Debit cards 24 hours a day. The loading of an overseas travel notice will let us know that you will be using your card overseas. However, transactions may still show up in our system as suspicious, due to the value or if a card has been used and declined in quick succession. We have a duty of care to protect our customers and we need to minimise any risk that their card may have been compromised, which is why we may place a block on a card.

We constantly review our systems we have in place to monitor transactions, and we are always looking at ways to improve what we offer. We want to make sure we meet that balance between protecting our customer and not causing any unnecessary frustration or inconvenience when travelling overseas. I have forwarded the details of your complaint through to the appropriate manager for further review and consideration.

For clarity I have answered your questions to us in the following format:

1. We believe that you have done the right thing in contacting us prior to your departure, which is what we would recommend all customers to do. We would also recommend customers to take with them back up cash or another way of accessing their funds in case of an emergency while they are overseas. We do offer a Loaded for Travel card that can be loaded with up to 12 currencies, and we issue two cards in case one is lost or stolen.

2. Our timeframe for our secure mail service is a response in 48 hours. We do receive a large volume of messages through this service and we try to reply to our customers as quickly as we can. We advise our customers that if it is something urgent to contact us by phone as soon as possible.

3. Unfortunately we don’t have any control over timeframes for Visa and their emergency cash process, and Western Union transfers.

4. We are happy to organise a wire transfer either by Visa or Western Union if we are unable to get your card working, or send out an urgent replacement in time. Our first priority is to get you access to your funds while overseas and we try to do this by ensuring your Kiwibank card is working first. However, if all other options are exhausted then we will organise this. I do apologise if you were told information that conflicts with this.

5. We would be happy to reimburse you the amounts that you have been charged for mobile calls to us. Please let us know the amount and I can organise this to be credited to your Kiwibank account as soon as possible. I would also like to offer, as part of our apology, a cash contribution to your Kiwibank account of $200. If you are happy for this to be credited as full and final settlement of your complaint, please let me know and I will organise this to be done.

If you have any further concerns or if there is anything that I have not covered in my email, please let me know.

Kind Regards