Lago Avandaro at Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Playa del Carmen on December 17th!

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Yet another problem...

Cloudy with sunny breaks yesterday. High of about 20C (68F), so it was quite pleasant.

Right beside where we are parked, there is a water faucet that actually works. So we took the opportunity to do some chores. Laundry is always an issue... it's difficult to find laundromats. They do exist in the larger cities, but they're not always convenient. So we do smaller items by hand when we can.

This is where we are parked...

Can you see Ruth?

This is how we do laundry!

Just the smaller items... socks, underwear, t-shirts... those kind of things. She does hers, and I do mine.

I also took advantage of the water faucet to wash one side of Max. I only got the right side done, but at least that's the side we see the most often because the door is on that side. I had best intentions of getting the left side done too, but having a nap interrupted that idea!

Just before noon, we walked over to the Big Market store and spoke to the girls again about the invoice problem. The cashier admitted her mistake, and they handed over the difference in cash. 

Then we walked over to a Conad grocery store because the Conad stores have a lot of gluten free products. Sure enough they did, and we stocked up on some gluten free bread. I went to pay with my Visa credit card, and there was another problem! This time, the transaction was processing, and it simply disconnected. The message on the point of sale terminal simply said that. "Disconnected".

So I paid in cash, and that was that. Until I later checked my phone, and the charge was there. And it's still there this morning, so I'm thinking this time it went through. Very strange to have a problem two days in a row, at two different stores, and with two different problems!

So we will have to go back to the Conad store before we leave here this morning.

Yesterday, a reader asked what we would do if we had a more serious problem. Such as our visa card getting compromised, or our debit card not working.

I think we are pretty well prepared in that regard. We use our visa card as much as possible in all payments because 1) we get points, and 2) we get the exact foreign exchange rate at the time with no added fees. And in all of our travels around the world, our card has only been compromised once... and that was in Texas! However, it could happen anywhere. We each have the same card, but they have different account numbers on them. I'm honestly not sure if one would continue to work if we had to block the other one because they are linked to the same account.

But I do know that if we needed to have a card replaced, they ship worldwide with very fast shipping service so we wouldn't be without a card for very long.

And of course we each have our own debit/ATM card as well. And we usually have enough cash hidden around Max to keep us going for a week or so if we had to. We don't keep a lot... but a couple of hundred dollars worth would last us long enough.

We never did get out for a bike ride, but just before dusk we went for a walk on the beach...

Photo taken at 3:50pm.

This huge place is just sitting unfinished.

Leftover bunkers from the communist years.

This place is being actively built.

Looking north towards Durres.

There are some nice properties too!

Supposed to cloud over after lunch with showers this afternoon and into tomorrow, however Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are supposed to be beautiful so we'll look forward to that. We think we're going to head a little further south to an interesting fortress that is not built at the top of a hill!

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Record low deal on this Lenovo Chromebook Flex. Great price for basic internet surfing.

And in Canada...

18 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about all your money woes. Just an FYI, our card was also compromised in Texas on a long trip and only the account number effected had to be blocked, so my card worked fine. Love reading your tales, have fun.

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    1. It looks like it is all going to work out fine. That is what I sort of thought would happen, that only one number would be blocked and the other card should work fine. Hopefully we won't have to test this theory out. :-)

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  2. My husband and I have different visa numbers on the same account but when his card was compromised in the states a couple of years ago mine was shut down too. I've always thought having a back up card would be a good idea.

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    1. Um...interesting, maybe it depends on the bank and how they deal with it because others here have said what we thought would happen, that they would only close off the one account number. Hopefully we won't ever have to test this theory out.

      We do have a back up card with another bank, so we won't ever be totally without a credit card, again hopefully we won't have to use it.

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  3. We went to our bank in Canada & they issued each of us backup ATM cards. We never needed them but just having them in our safe was reassurance.

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    1. We used to have backup debit cards with our other bank but never had to use them, With the switch over of banks a couple of years ago we now each have an ATM card with a different number and a different PIN and we try to never have them on us at the same time, Throughout all our travels in the past 14 years we have never had a problem with our ATM cards. We also have an extra credit card should we ever need to rely on it.

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  4. I carry four credit cards, one Visa, one American Express and two Mastercards, all from different companies. Norma had her own cards. I also have two ATM cards, one for my chequing and one for my savings account so we are well covered. We hide a couple of these cards in the motorhome. Both of us have have had cards compromised in the past, each time while in the US. I know exactly when mine was compromised. It was at an off brand gas station with a shady looking attendant who insisted on hanging onto my card while I filled up. After this I would just pre-authorize a set amount that I know it would take and hang onto the card.

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    1. We used to carry a number of different credit cards with us but when we switched banks a couple of years ago we decided to get rid of our extra credit cards, we just wanted to simplify our lives. We each now have a credit card to our joint account and one extra credit card and one ATM card each. We never try to carry debit cards or the credit cards around together. Our extra credit card is stashed away, hidden in Max.

      As Kevin mentioned, ours was also compromised in Texas but that was a long time ago. It seems now with PIN numbers and such it is harder for this to happen these days, also now with the notification set up on Kevin's phone of any charges that go through on the card, we have never had an issue with our cards being compromised. In this particular case, we think there is a problem with either the terminal or the internet. One is already all sorted out and the other should be sorted out today, we are not worried about the charges that are showing up as pending now that we have spoken with the people at the store and we totally trust them, the have really been very helpful and pleasant to deal with.

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  5. We have different numbers on our cards (though one account), and when mine was compromised, my husband's still worked. Guess it depends on the bank, but that is a nice feature since only one of the numbers was compromised. I have had several cards compromised over the years, all in the US, but I rarely used my cards in Mexico or Belize, since those are primarily cash economies, and I almost always paid in local cash funds.

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    1. That is what we are hoping will happen too should we ever have a problem with either of our cards, hopefully we will never have to worry about that. We also have one extra credit card but in all these years we have never had to use it.

      We have used our credit card all over the world, even in Tanzania and the only time we have had a problem was in the USA and once in Canada but that was before we even started RVing. We like to use the credit card whenever possible as it saves us money and we get points with it.

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  6. Max looks great! On the road we do undies, socks and my polyester shirts in the rv. Oprah says she does hers in hotels because they charge $5 a piece. :)

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    1. When we were in Sherman we had our hand plunger washer and I used to wash a bit of clothing almost every day that we stayed somewhere with water facilities. It was easy to keep up with the laundry that way and then we only had to pay for someone to wash our sheets and towels or bigger, bulkier items. Good for Oprah! :-)

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  7. On a laundry note, I wondered whether you'd heard of these? As we've not got our motorhome/camper yet I haven't tried them personally but they are on my wish list for when we do get one and I can start getting all the gadgets.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N68XF0O/?coliid=I195NKG3KN7FE8&colid=38KIOW6UTLOJ&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

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    1. Yes, we have heard of these before and it had even crossed our minds on buying one a few years ago for when we travel with a suitcase and use Airbnbs but the cost sort of it put us off. We seem to do just fine washing stuff in the bucket. I think we would rather use the bucket and buy a plunger like we had when we had our North American motorhome, that worked out really well. This is what we had back in Canada https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-Washer-Hand-Operated-Laundry/dp/B002QUAPSO and it was less then half the price of the Scrubba Wash Bag and you can easily wash slightly bigger items with it too.

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  8. Oh I love the look of this.... the one thing that appealed about the scrubby bag is that apparently you can just fill it up, pop it in the shower and drive, then when you get to your destination, rinse and hang up to dry - which appeals....but there's no reason why one couldn't make a DIY version(which I might try - WHEN we get the camper!)

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    1. As I mentioned, we really liked the plunger style washer it worked well. We were also able to do a few more items of clothing at a time when we did the wash this way. I hope that whatever you figure out, will work well for you. :-)

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  9. Looks like the coastline is going to look like the Montenegro Coast line soon....resorts everywhere. A shame, I get it gets allot of money for the country but it's a shame it takes the beauty away.

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    1. We really hope not because Albania really has some beautiful coastline. This area around Durrës certainly has a lot of resorts, however we also don't think this is the prettiest part of the Albanian coastline, so if they want to build around this area then it is fine by us, it is the area much further south that we hope stays more natural.

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