An unusual question ... when I was in Egypt recently, I tried to draw a very small sum of local currency from an ATM using my UK debit card. The transaction failed, with a message 'timed out by issuing bank'. Then I got an SMS on my phone from 'Show Balance', I hadn't requested a balance. I tried a second time and the same thing happened. Also a second SMS. No message, just the 'Show Balance' icon in the message list.
When I got home, my bank statement showed 2 sets of refunds (cash plus exchange fee x 2) followed by 2 sets of payments. As I didn't get any cash, the net cost was zero but I'm concerned that if I'd been really in need of funds, to pay a taxi for example (they don't have card machines in the Egyptian desert and I was 4 hours from the nearest city) I wouldn't have been able to get any.
When I send an SMS or make a call here in UK, I get a balance screen after the call/message is concluded (it's a Pay & Go account) and I am wondering if the 2 'Show Balance' messages reflected incoming messages from my bank, because I've been charged in the past for receiving incoming messages. I didn't actually get any call or message from my bank, but wonder if they did try to contact me.
I did try hard to inform my bank of my travel plans and they said I didn't need to pre-inform, but I had to have a cellphone in case their fraud team wanted to check 'suspicious activity' which makes me wonder what the 'Show Balance' messages were about.
This is a concern for me because I do travel in Egypt a couple of times a year and in the current situation, might need emergency funds for unplanned travel/hotel charges.
Don't fancy the idea of being banged up in an Egyptian prison for non-payment of bills! TIA if anyone can help.
