My South American Bail Out

Don´t loose your debit card.

Let me be the one to tell you first, if you go to another country, where your bank doesn´t exist, and you loose the one card that allows you access to your money. You are SCREWED!

Yup, I fell victim to....well, my own stupidity. I should have brought a back up card. When I left, I was worried about it getting stolen, in which case it would not have mattered if I had a back up...becuase I would have needed to cancel the card either way..., right? Well, I didn´t think I was going to loose it. Of course, Bank of America does not have any branches anywhere in South America...nor does it have any partners. Nor will they send a new card to a foriegn country. To boot, they will not send it anywhere except the home address on your account. Regardless of how many thousands of miles away from it you are....trust me, I asked.

Yes, I had a little emergency cash stashed away. So, I thought.....a lot.....and the best idea I came up with is to start an account in Peru, and then wire transfer founds from BofA to my new account in Peru. So, I went to the only bank in town that would open an account for me with only a passport. Well, it turns out that the person sending the money (me) needs to be present at the a physical bank in order to complete an international wire transfer. Not cool. Now I have a worthless Peruvian bank account, and not much money left. What to do?

Time to call in the calvery. Yup, my parents bailed me out. I figured everyone else is getting bailed out these days....why not join in on the fun. A little money sent via western union to tide e over until we can get my new card to me in Peru. Its never cool to have to borrow money from your parents, but sometimes....its your only option.

Two FedEx packages, and $144 later, I have my debit card back. Ready to go, problem solved.

Moral of the story, when you are in a place where no one knows you, and you know no one, try to hold onto the one card that is the link between you and your bank account....its sort of important.