Originally Posted by
jeffrocowboy
I agree it seems to be unreasonable not to have 24 hour support. And agree a constructive rant is worthwhile.
However, even with 24 hour support it would seem anyone is vulnerable with having only one means of payment at their disposal. In this situation for example, a best case scenario would be to ring the 24 hour number, have the issue sorted and the card 'unblocked' allowing payment. I think this might still be a little humiliating in front of clients (and take more than a few minutes). I'd rather have a plan B payment option up my sleeve (another credit/debit card, cash etc).
Agreed that a single option isn't a very redundant strategy, and it's always good to have a bit of cash on you. But in New Zealand, where annual fees are the norm (I still struggle with this as a recent import to NZ), having two cards from two different banks is an administrative and financial inconvenience.
Turns out that the lowest cost backup card strategy involves, you guessed it, Kiwibank (the MasterCard Zero).
I've been traveling a lot more and need to rely less on my card as a source of SPs, which is the strongest value proposition of using the Kiwibank Air NZ Platinum card . I'm considering a move back to ANZ - I was a very happy customer but left in a moment of (unnecessary) SP greed.