ATMs and foreign cards

My husband had his card sucked into an ATM when he first moved here.  Our bank replaced his ATM card and FedExed it to his office.  Since then, we have not had a problem on this side.  However, many ATMs have a 2 million IRP limit, so we need to make multiple withdrawals at the end of the month in order to pay staff people.  Our bank had to raise our ATM withdrawal limit in order to accommodate this.  When our bank saw what they felt were suspicious withdrawals, we get phone calls in the middle of the night.  Our bank also seems to limit our withdrawals to three in a day per person, so we sometimes need to dip into our other bank account.  I have never had a problem at any of the ATMs that you mention, if you see a logo on the back of your ATM card that matches with the logos on the ATM, it should work.  I believe many of them accept ATM cards with the PLUS logo.  Another commonly accepted card is the STAR logo.

I just found out that my husband's company has an agreement with Citibank that will cash a check immediately, rather than in 2 weeks, so we can get paid in US dollars and then convert to rupiah.  Depending on who your employer is, they may have a similar deal.  My husband had worked here since March, and I just found out about this option last week.  Anyhow, this avoids any ATM or foreign transaction fees your bank may charge.  Our bank does not charge for ATM withdrawals or foreign transaction fees, but they keep telling us we need to switch to an international account, but we still retain our USA residence and have kept a USA forwarding address to get around this problem.  I do need to call the bank whenever we return to the states or travel to let them know that the withdrawals will not be fraudulent, they are very good with security and I have never had a problem with any fraudulent transactions, and we have been with them for over 20 years.

During an orientation for my husband's company, I heard that our location is high on the list for fraudulent transactions, especially internet transactions, so your problem might be with your banks security features?  If that is the case, call them and explain your situation.

Fred wrote:

I've heard a few stories about foreign ATM cards been rejected in Indonesian ATMs.
I've tried my visa debit in BCA, BRI and Manderi, only BCA having a problem, but that machine went out of service as soon as I removed my card, so that could well be that machine on the blink.
I will try another BCA tomorrow.
The cards I've heard of were American issued cards, possibly without the 'chip and pin' feature.
After a good google, I read a couple of sites that talk about a shift in liability for stolen card usage, and that involved non chip and pin cards, or chip and pin cards in non chip and pin machines, so that could well be part or all of the issue.
This sites talked about Visa labelled cards, not other types.

I had this experience with BCA few months ago. First, the machine did not dispense the money, then it went out of service. When i check my balance online with my phone, the money was taken out. it was only 500,000 so I didnt bother sending a complain. Anyway the following day, when i was checking my balance  online again, I noticed that they returned my money.
I also noticed that some of the BCA ATMs were purely for domestic transactions (the machines without BancNet , Cirrus, EPS and etc. signs on them).

I had the same thing...a person ahead of me (Indonesian) received money.  When I put my card in, it gave me a message saying the machine was broken.  I took my card out, and tried another BCA machine again and got the same message.  I assumed they were just out of money, but there was nobody else waiting to get money so I don't know. 

Speaking of using your phone/tablet to check your bank account...do you think that is safe in a public place?  I have been very cautious about only checking my balance at home.  My bank has told me to be very careful about doing secure transactions in this area of the world....? Although I'm not sure my home connection is any more secure. 

Does anybody have a fraud monitoring service...something like LifeLock etc?  Do you recommend one to prevent ID theft?  I was considering signing up for one.