I need to know if you think I need to cancel my cards or not. I phoned the bank & they said it's my decision. It's going to be a monumental PITA if I do, but if anyone with any knowledge thinks I need to, I will.
It's a bit of a ramble, sorry, I'm still pretty shaken. Name changed as I'll tell friends when I get home & don't want to link it to my normal ramblings about life.
I'm in Montpellier and just had an awful experience at the tram stop outside the main Train Station. As per usual the ticket machine wasn't working, so I was about to cross the line and try the one on the other side. This girl came & said something to me about it not working & to use the other one, she sort of tugged my arm. I don't know the 'politically correct' term for them, but they're very 'street & a bit feral'. (Sorry, I really don't know how else to describe them). She was 'trying to help' & being too British I didn't like to tell her to bugger off, she was shielding the screen from the sun & telling me to wait etc then to enter my pin. I could see she had selected 'one trip €1.60' all good, she turned away & I entered my pin. But it wouldn't work, we tried several times and a couple of cards & cash. It wasn't having any of it so I let others have a turn and (to my relief) she went back to her friends.
It was working for some people & not for others, so I had another go & it worked.
Crossed back to the other side & sat on the bench.
She was still over the other side with her friends and as the tram approached I smiled at her in a goodbye/thanks and stood up to get on the tram, before I knew it they'd surrounded me, were trying to get into my large back pack & my shoulder bag, they wouldn't let me off the tram & they had hands everywhere, and so I pushed forward with all my weight & my packs weight and just about fell into the main part of the carriage and moved further along & sat with an older man & woman (not a couple), I told them what happened & they both asked if I was ok & if I still had everything. I was (kind of) and appear to have everything still. But I was shaken.
I still have my cards, but there was no way to shield my pin. It's a very busy tram stop with loads of people crowding around a very open machine.
The guy at the bank wanted to know if my card had gone 'all the way in' - I don't think it did, but I couldn't swear to it. He said it's entirely up to me whether I cancel my cards or not. I don't know if I need to or not? I don't know how easy it is to clone cards through machines like that? (Rather than ones you can access easily & regularly such as petrol stations etc).