Bank limited debit card transactions — anyway to solve this?

Hello everyone,

My bank just limited my debit card transactions because of suspected fraud activities. Even if it was just me withdrawing big amounts to remit in another establishment and buying airplane tickets…

Anyways, I went to the bank so I can show the staff the text message I got and told me they can’t do anything about it and I have to wait 3 months with “normal” transactions before they can increase this again.

Bank is CTBC btw

They limited the transaction to 10,000 which is ridiculous because a plane ticket or hotel booking can easily cost more than that.

Did anyone else experience this? I asked my other foreign friends but they haven’t experienced this at all. I can’t find an email for support in the website so I can maybe file a complain or something.

Or will it help if I apply for a credit card? I’ve been putting it off because I was doing fine with my debit card.

My experience has been that the bank has a default limit, but that can be increased by signing a form. This has been the same with three different banks for me, but I’ve never had a CTBC account.

Yes get a credit card. Get the CTBC China airlines co branded card and earn miles as you spend

2 Likes

Yeah, I didn’t have a problem before withdrawing or spending anything over 10k$ but because of “suspected fraud” they sent me a text message :cry:

The bank staff I talked to didn’t offer me a form, but he was just a teller so I’m not sure if it’ll be different if I talked to the one that has their own desks, maybe I’ll ask again. Thank you!

Is there any reason that you need to use THAT bank? If not, keep just a little money in it, and open another account at another bank. Use it instead.

This is where my company took me :face_holding_back_tears: Is it that bad? I did see another thread about how it’s discriminating against foreigners but it’s years old and someone else I know who’s here for 5+ yrs already still use it…

Just got a call back from the customer service, finally.

They said, through them, they can increase the debit limit spend but temporarily.

If I want to increase it forever, I need to go to the branch. But then the branch I went to said wait 3 months, right, so I guess I can only wait until then.

Tbh I feel this is very stupid. A customer should be able to confirm if the purchase history was valid and not fraud and restore my regular limits back. If they’re being frauded, from experience, a bank doesn’t care nor are they liable if someone got scammed (well in my country at least).

a credit card is better for buying airline tickets and other expenditures

1 Like

Phone lines didn’t help either, just asked me to go to a branch :sob:

Go to the branch where your account is. If they don’t want to help file an FSC complaint

3 Likes

I had a similar issue with my Taishin Bank debit card, but it turned out to be a problem with the third-party airline ticket website, which didn’t accept Taiwanese debit cards. In the end, I applied for a credit card, and I also prefer using the official airline website for booking tickets now, which solved the issue.

Another option is to go through a travel agency, but keep in mind they may require a deposit payment and financial statements