EDR Credit Card - not a serious card for Travellers?

[Moopere]

There is a hidden rant in here as I'm a bit frustrated.

I think I've just received a wake up call on the EDR CC and its possible pitfalls if relied upon whilst travelling.

I just tried to book an RJ flight online and it was rejected. Advice from RJ was to call my card provider to see whats up. So, I did that; helpful lady at EDR told me that yes, indeed, there was a bar on transactions with RJ because they were out of the ordinary for my spend pattern - which is fine, I get this all the time with Amex too and usually they just want some reassurance that I'm really behind the transaction.

So, she said that given my permission, which I gave, the bar would be lifted and I could complete my transaction. Sounded pretty reasonable.

But no. Still can't complete the transaction. So I give it a few minutes, about 15, then try again, nope, ok, ring back EDR ... now they are apparently closed and I have to wait until Monday. For goodness sakes. Good thing I'm not dangling at the ticket counter in a foreign country. Also can't log in to my EDR account online now ... so it appears my whole card might have been suspended....

Again, good thing I'm at home and not relying upon the card to get by.

I understand and accept the need for vigilance on the potential fraud thing, but to not give poor punters any way through the issue outside of 8am-8pm Monday to Friday AEST seems a bit rich. As I say in the subject line ... given this experience, I'd be pretty hesitant of relying upon this card as my only VISA/Mastercard on a trip anywhere. I generally, thankfully, get through 95% of life with my much valued Amex combo's, but as we all know, one generally needs to keep a VISA or M/C somewhere in the wallet for that last 5%...

 

[QF029]

Not ideal but most travellers would have a minimum of one backup card so potentially not the end of the world.

 

[Moopere]

Not ideal but most travellers would have a minimum of one backup card so potentially not the end of the world.

Yes, indeed. The problem being partly RJ's ... what modern airline doesn't accept Amex??? Sheesh.

 

[Cynicor]

Most of us would have the 28 degrees anyway. What do you value the QFF point at if you are willing to use this card for a (I assume) foreign denominated transaction?

 

[Moopere]

What do you value the QFF point at if you are willing to use this card for a (I assume) foreign denominated transaction?

About 3c for QFF in my strategies. So its a no win when using this card o/s as the EDRCC has a 3% forex charge. I generally don't use it tbh, its a backup for those few cases where Amex isn't accepted. This makes things even more frustrating as I don't really want to have 2 or 3 VISA/MC in my wallet all costing a yearly fee when I only push a few thousand a year through them.

On balance I didn't go for a 28 degrees card because there is no FF earn on it. Foreign transactions are free, but no points, versus Amex (usually) at 3% but I value those points at 3c each, so its an even deal (not a win). Still, cheaper to accumulate points that way than to buy a points bundle and its convenient, so I go with it.

 

[here2go]

About 3c for QFF in my strategies. So its a no win when using this card o/s as the EDRCC has a 3% forex charge. I generally don't use it tbh, its a backup for those few cases where Amex isn't accepted. This makes things even more frustrating as I don't really want to have 2 or 3 VISA/MC in my wallet all costing a yearly fee when I only push a few thousand a year through them.

On balance I didn't go for a 28 degrees card because there is no FF earn on it. Foreign transactions are free, but no points, versus Amex (usually) at 3% but I value those points at 3c each, so its an even deal (not a win). Still, cheaper to accumulate points that way than to buy a points bundle and its convenient, so I go with it.

Could you have booked through an online travel agent? I've never had problems booking through online agents, but thanks for the tip - avoid HSBC powered cards for OS purchases?

 

[Moopere]

Could you have booked through an online travel agent? I've never had problems booking through online agents,

I don't do this as a general rule but am having all sorts of issues with Malaysia and Thailand in particular. Might go to Amex travel and see if they will help make the whole problem go away.

but thanks for the tip - avoid HSBC powered cards for OS purchases?

I'm not yet convinced its a HSBC problem. I don't know the relationship between Woolies and HSBC when it comes to the back office. Certainly they do a good job of making things appear to the end user that all the support and whatnot is handled by Woolies. When I've rung HSBC direct in the past they have declined to help me, instead referring to Woolies as the primary support provider.

 

[Moopere]

Could you have booked through an online travel agent?

Just wanted to return to this with a big thank you for this suggestion. As I said in my post above, I tend to book pretty much everything via a companies own web page and therefore sometimes miss the obvious plan B ... which is to use an aggregator.

After a frustrating morning where RJ thinks there is something wrong with my EDRCC, and EDR reckons RJ is probably "a bit dodgy" (??) I wasn't getting anywhere.

Went along to Zuji (travelocity) and in about 10 minutes, mainly time spent by me navigating an unfamiliar site, I'm booked, using Amex which was my preference in the beginning. Am now filling in missing details on the RJ website against the booking.

Great stuff, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[here2go]

Just wanted to return to this with a big thank you for this suggestion. As I said in my post above, I tend to book pretty much everything via a companies own web page and therefore sometimes miss the obvious plan B ... which is to use an aggregator.

After a frustrating morning where RJ thinks there is something wrong with my EDRCC, and EDR reckons RJ is probably "a bit dodgy" (??) I wasn't getting anywhere.

Went along to Zuji (travelocity) and in about 10 minutes, mainly time spent by me navigating an unfamiliar site, I'm booked, using Amex which was my preference in the beginning. Am now filling in missing details on the RJ website against the booking.

Great stuff, thanks for the suggestion.

Depending on the nature of the journey, I usually go to Skyscanner, find the company to book through from there, and generally avoid in case of Qantas or in case of Virgin reduce credit card fees. I have found though that adding FF numbers retrospectively can also be difficult. SAS requires and email and SQ needs you to use the mobile website unless you make the booking through them.
I couldn't add QFF on Finnair through Skytours, but as soon as I had the PNR like you I was able to do it. Can't beat OneWorld and Amadeus as a combo.

 

[Newk]

Depending on the nature of the journey, I usually go to Skyscanner, find the company to book through from there, and generally avoid in case of Qantas or in case of Virgin reduce credit card fees. I have found though that adding FF numbers retrospectively can also be difficult. SAS requires and email and SQ needs you to use the mobile website unless you make the booking through them.
I couldn't add QFF on Finnair through Skytours, but as soon as I had the PNR like you I was able to do it. Can't beat OneWorld and Amadeus as a combo.

Thanks you blokes..I continue to learn stuff here

 

[Pleb Status]

Woolies/HSBC pinged my recent bookings made on the AA Australia website (priced in AUD). Like the OP, I had to ring and get the transactions authorised and then ring AA to manually process the payments.

Still easier to deal with than when I had my platinum charge where almost every non-AUD transaction was pinged, even after telling them where I was going beforehand.

 

[Moopere]

Woolies/HSBC pinged my recent bookings made on the AA Australia website (priced in AUD). Like the OP, I had to ring and get the transactions authorised and then ring AA to manually process the payments.

I rang RJ in Sydney hoping that they would accept Amex over the phone, and yes, they would, but booking over the phone was going to cost me $50 for the pleasure. There had to be a better way... and Zuji in this case turned out to be that way (expedia interestingly don't seem to support RJ...perhaps they _are_ a bit dodgy after all hehehe)

Interestingly, trying to book DJ from HKT to PER gave me only VISA/MC options, even though they had the Amex and Diners logo right next to the payment options drop down box (???!!!). My EDRCC was suspended at this point, yay, the frustration of it all, so I rang DJ who initially were surprised at the lack of online Amex option (as was I) but then processed the whole thing on the phone for no additional cost. Thanks DJ, good service - though I wish they'd fix their website to work with all the cards that they actually support.

Still easier to deal with than when I had my platinum charge where almost every non-AUD transaction was pinged, even after telling them where I was going beforehand.

I get a reasonable amount of telephone activity with Amex but it doesn't annoy me yet. I've not had a problem in the end, they just want to know that its me doing the spending, and they appear to be available 24x7 which is great.

 

[Isochronous]

What kind of so-called "Platinum" MasterCard (this is what it says on the card) only offers 9-6 support? Surely a direct HSBC card is 24 hours. Also the website is rather clunky and I've had trouble with it being randomly declined in Australia for no reason at all, as have other family members. I will ring up soon to cancel to see if I can get the annual fee for the next year which starts in December waived. Are they still doing that?

 

[ellen10]

Hi I have just returned from 6 weeks o/s

Used my EDRCC months before for flight & accommodation bookings. No problem at all

Before I left I phoned them to say I will be overseas. I used the card extensively whilst o/s and had no problem.
Also took my Amex but often it is not accepted in Europe.

My son tried to use his Visa card for bookings with edreams whilst o/s and had no end of problems.

This is our experience.

 

[DC3]

What kind of so-called "Platinum" MasterCard (this is what it says on the card) only offers 9-6 support? ...

I think that by calling it a Platinum card they are able to extract higher fees from the merchant. That's probably the main reason.

 

[jsd]

I don't know the relationship between Woolies and HSBC when it comes to the back office. Certainly they do a good job of making things appear to the end user that all the support and whatnot is handled by Woolies.

Indeed, and last I heard the Woolworths Money call centre had been been contracted out to Salmat in Auckland

Come to think of it, Salmat manage quite a lot of the Woolworths' Contact Centre operations.

Obviously if you pick up the phone and call a store directly you will get a Woolworths Employee but thats no help with CC enquiries.

I'm think that Salmat also run some of the Woolworths Facebook Pages (Don't quote me on that one). However Individual Stores run their Twitter pages individually (such as Woolworths Eastlands (WoW_Eastlands) on Twitter which I manage).


** I am an employee of Woolworths Limited, my views, opinions and statements may not necessarily reflect those of my employer