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A TTP user from Canada had a
serious problem withdrawing money from
ATMs (bancomats, cashpoints) in Turkey.
Here's his story:
"Like many others traveling in
Turkey, we were used to having to walk
from cash machine to cash machine looking
for one that was willing to give out
cash on our debit card. We were never
sure why so many machines seemed were
out of commission: out of cash? some
sort of time zone problem with our
Canadian bank? just cantankerous?
"Because we were used to machines
not giving out cash, we were not alarmed
when we got to Cappadocia and
we encountered this problem at both
of the cash machines in Göreme.
We were annoyed when this went on for
repeated attempts over several days,
but we assumed we had successfully
worked around it by going to a bank
and taking out money on our Visa card.
"However, to our horror, we discovered
upon our return to Canada that our
Vancouver bank had deducted every one
of the failed transactions from our
bank account even though we had not
received a cent of the money in Göreme.
As a result, we were out $1400.
"We complained to our bank, and
they explained that this sometimes
happens because the Turkish
cash machine times out before the tourist’s
bank can answer back telling the cash
machine to dole out the money.
Meanwhile, the tourist’s bank
has gone ahead and debited the account
and wired the money to the Turkish
bank.
"Our bank did eventually get
our money back from the Turkish banks,
but it took over three months.
"My suggestion for visitors to
distant regions of Turkey: Be
sure to take enough cash to pay for
everything, especially as
you can’t count on the smaller
inns and restaurants accepting credit
cards.
We did not encounter this problem
at any of the Mediterranean or Aegean towns we visited."
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