I am just back from a two-month cruise, which started with a few days in Santiago, Chile.
You may not know this, but in Chile, when you use a foreign credit card, you have to select an option on the machine to indicate that you are a foreigner. It has something to do with taxes. If I had known that, and/or my Spanish was any good, I would have chosen the correct option, my card would not have registered that I had tried my pin too many times, and I would not have been locked out. But I did not know that, my Spanish is not very good, and so, just like that, on Day 1 of my vacation, I was no longer able to use my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card, for its intended purpose, being travelling.
So, I called TD Bank, went through a thousand verification procedures and satisfied them that they were truly talking to me. Having established that, they told me that the situation could only be corrected by having me attend at a Canadian branch to reset my pin. Alternatively, they told me that they could send me a new pin by regular mail, which was not that helpful at the outset of a two-month trip. (It was also untrue, because when I finally got home, it turned out that even with the pin that they sent me by mail, I still had to attend at a branch to get my card working again.)
Now, according to their website, “as a top 10 North American bank, TD aims to stand out from its peers through a distinctive brand and industry-leading client experience, underpinned by our proven business model and focus on continuous growth and innovation. Also, they create an unparalleled client experience, combining human interactions with digital convenience.”
If the truth be known, I kind of like TD. The people at the local branch are helpful, they are relatively easy to deal with for day-to-day matters, and they rarely cause me much grief. But be there when you need them in a pinch? Not so much.
Do I think any of the other Canadian banks are any better? Probably not. Lack of competition will do that.
Luckily, I travel with several credit cards, because if I had to rely on TD using all of their magnificent technology to provide excellent customer service to me, I would probably still be in Chile.