Bit of a downer

First off, let me say sorry for the lack of updates from day 5-7, there was much resting, with a travel to an ultra swanky back street in the Arab quarter, accompanied by a trip to some Singaporean clubs which only ended at 5:30 in the morning, and we booked into The Scarlet.

I started this blog entry yesterday, and it began quite differently. Something along the lines of scarlet is amazing, comfortable, beautiful etc etc. Then I discovered a $377 transaction from my credit card, in a fit of calm, mom and I cancelled my account and I was content to think I had lost $377 and no more, it could have been worse right? Audrey and I continued exploring Chinatown and its surrounds, wonderful, and enjoyed a magnificent dinner at Ember, where I ate frogs legs – delish!

Then we discovered the transaction was from The Scarlet.

This irked me somewhat, as when checking in there was no mention of any block on the designated card, and when I discovered the transaction I did ask the front desk whether they had placed any transactions etc on my card, which they denied. I went again, and the attendant recalled that they make a ‘block’ on $480 SGD on the credit card, why on earth they would do this is beyond me, as the receptionist continued to tell me that they had no actual control on the money, and could only release the block. I calmly asked that that is a somewhat redundant thing to do, as my account has been cancelled, so where will the money go? The attendant talked a significant quantity of bank jargon at me, until I managed to twist his arm into actually phoning the bank to ask what we could do, a long story short: The bank will attempt to release my money, knowing full well it will probably just disappear, but wait! In their wisdom they shall write, on the fax they send NAB to release their funds (which has confused NAB to no end, they don’t do blocks) a note saying that they realize they are trying to unblock funds to a cancelled account.

This thoroughly reassured the receptionist.

I have tried a few times after this to talk with the receptionist, things like “what is the point of blocking funds from your customers if you can’t reach them?” and “can’t we talk to the bank about getting the funds directly from them?”, but alas it appears that my money is well and truly in limbo somewhere. Somewhere that no bank, hotel or mortal man can touch it.

All I can do now is wait to see if this fax the ‘local bank’ can magically return the money to my account.

In a little while we’ll try write a decent blog about the remainders of our trip. Bit of a sour tint to everything at the moment.