Note: Each call and new connect is generally preceeded by a phone queue. Sometimes long, sometimes short. Sometimes you get an indication of how long you can expect to wait, sometimes not. Sometimes this estimation is close to reality, sometimes not. And sometimes you get disconnected while waiting in the queue, sometimes not. Now for the story... I lost my visa card. Big mistake! Called and blocked it. Was asked if I wanted a new one but said "No, I'll wait a bit in case it turns up.". Huge mistake! Almost two weeks later I was still without card and decided I really need a new one. So I call the bank and tell them I've lost my card and want to order a new one. "Just a sec and we'll connect you to the blocking service." "No. I have already blocked it. Just want to order a new one." "Ahh! Ok. Will connect you to then." Get sent to where I explain again, and after a bit of checking they explain they can't help me. They only handle MasterCard. They connect me to where I am asked to: press "1" for personal service, "2" for automated... I press "1". press "1" for personal service, "2" for automated... I press "1". press "1" for personal service, "2" for automated... I press "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1"... And then I'm told: "You don't have a touchtone phone. Thank you for your call.", and get disconnected. I call the bank again and tell them I've lost my card and want to order a new one. "Just a sec and we'll connect you to the blocking service." "No. I have already blocked it. Just want to order a new one." "Ahh! Ok. Will connect you to then." "NO! I've already been there.", and I explain the problem. He puts me on hold to check. Then gets back and tells me there's apparently some problem there. But do I have internet bank? "Yes" "Then you can order a new card there." Great! I thank him and hang up. In the evening I connect to internet bank and go to the "Order card" page. Can only order MasterCard or Maestro - not visa. Next day I get back and tell them I've lost my card and want to order a new one. "Just a sec and we'll connect you to the blocking service." "No. I have already blocked it. Just want to order a new one." "Ahh! Ok. Will connect you to then." "NO! I've already been there. Doesn't work". "Oh... but do you have internet bank?" "Yes, but I couldn't order visa - only MasterCard and Maestro." So... after some thinking he tells me the blocking service should be able to order a new card for me. So he connects me there. They tell me that yes, they can order new cards but only if it's been max 14 days since i blocked my old card. And my card was blocked... 15 days ago. I also find out that even if I had found my old card, a blocked card can't be unblocked, so there really was no use in not ordering a new one when I blocked it. Good to know, but would have been better to learn this when I talked to them first time. Anyway, they can connect me to . "NO! I've already been there. Doesn't work". "Oh... but do you have internet bank?" "Yes, but I couldn't order visa - only MasterCard and Maestro." More checking, pondering, talking with others... and he figures it out! "Visa has been removed. You must order MasterCard. But it will work the same." So I thank him and in the evening I connect to the bank again and order myself a card. Should take around 5 days. A bit over a week later I still haven't received my card, so I call again and ask where it is? They check in their files and everything looks fine - I should have received it by now. They doublecheck my address and data but all seems ok. Not first time mail has gone astray, though. So... do I want to order a new card? Now, I've got a small suspicion that the mail might have been misplaced by my wife, but I don't want to hang up now and risk not finding it and having to go through a number of new steps to get a new card, so I do the simple thing: "Yes! Please send me a new card!" Previously sent card gets blocked and a new card will be sent. I thank them, hang up, and rumble through my wife's papers... and there is the card, now blocked... 5 days later I get the new card, with a paper saying that everything's fixed - just cut the old card if you still have it, and put this new one in your wallet. It's already activated and the code is the same as for your old card. Great! Finally! Everything back to normal. My wife uses the card when shopping. Reports that there's a problem - she got "Wrong code" when trying to use it in the store. I try it in the nearest atm and it works fine for me to enter and ask for money... but then I get "Transaction aborted". This atm wasn't the one provided by this bank, though. Or perhaps we're just out of money? Checking at home... No, we have money on the card. I go try an atm provided by this bank, and get "Temporary error. Please try again later.". Yeah, right! The person before me had no problem! Home, call bank, complain that my card doesn't work. They check and tell me that the card has to be initialized. Apparently this isn't normally the case, which is why I got the standard paper saying I could use it immediately. But since it's (now) more than a month since I lost my card, different rules apply. I have to go to a bank to have it initialized... Unless I have "phone bank". Where can I get that? Via internet... So back on the net -> bank -> phone bank -> apply... after a while I have "phone bank" access. Use phone to call phonebank, where I am asked to press "1" for personal service, "2" for automated... I press "2". I'm asked to press "1" for personal service, "2" for automated... Deja Vu! I hang up and check the phonebank info on the net... It says "1#, 2#,...". Ahhh! Call back and press "2" followed by "#". Success! Now I am asked to press "10 for ", "11 for ", "12 for ...". At 40-something, I decide that option 25 (visa card info) is the closest sofar and go for that. 25 turns out to be just what it says: Info. Starts telling me about all the bonuses of having visa. I hang up and try again. This time I press 1, for personal service... followed by a hash, to make their system happy. I'm told that due to technical problems they have long waiting times, so better try again later. If I still want to continue, I should just hang on and wait. I hang on. At least I might get an idea of how long I'll have to wait. 5 seconds later customer service asks how they can help me. I tell them I want to activate my card. They fix so I can activate it on an atm close to home, but I have to do it within 2 hours (before midnight). 5 minutes later I stand by the atm with a display saying "Failed to read the card. Please try again.". Trying again gives the same message. I call phonebank again, get the same warning about long waiting time and get connected directly after. Tell them it doesn't work and they keep me waiting for 10 minutes while checking stuff... and finally tell me that there's apparently some problem, though they don't know with what. I'd better go to a bank to activate the card. Next day I go to the bank and tell them I want to activate the card. A clerk messes about a bit and then tells me I can now activate it on the atm outside. "When you enter the card, you'll need to..." "Yeah, yeah!", I say, and go outside. Put in the card, get the same message as last night, go back in, tell her it doesn't work, so please come out with me and see for yourself! She comes out and sees for herself that it doesn't work. Back in and talk with some others and finally tells me that apparently there's some problem with my card. I'll have to order a new one. She gives me a couple of forms to fill in and then orders the card for me. Will take a week, and this time it will work immediately, but the code will be a random one, sent in a separate envelope. A week later I got the card, and some days later I got the code. I could change it to something I wanted and since then everything's been working fine.