Bank of Montreal

Hi so I'm hoping for some guidance as I'm going through an absolute NIGHTMARE trying to get my bank to fix my card issue. I moved to Japan back in August due to full time employment following my university graduation. I prepared all of my documents and made sure to let BMO know that I would be abroad until the end of July 2025 and to please add it to my file so that nothing happens with my credit/bank cards while I am abroad as I will have no way to call and get the situation fixed. They said they would contact me via email, instead of call/text in the case of fraud detection, but they never did. After moving, shocker, BMO froze my credit card for making "fraudulent" purchases (I bought a lamp on amazon for my apartment).

After Googling it, I found that BMO has removed any form of giving notice that you will be out of the country and will use a fraud detection program instead! https://www.bmo.com/assets/pdfs/olb-travel-notification-faq-en.pdf Which is awful because their program is dumb as hell.

So I took the L on my credit card and was getting help from friends in Canada for any train/flight related purchases, after which I would e-transfer them the difference because I have no way to call or email BMO as any time I call them, a Japanese voice from my phone company tells me that I cannot make international calls. Earlier today I noticed I was struggling to make purchases at all, even when I did 2FA with my email and when I went to transfer money from my saving to checking, the app told me I have to call to get access to my account again. I cannot call and my student loans are linked to my Canadian bank and I DESPERATELY need to be able to pay them while working abroad.

I plan on leaving BMO when I return to Canada as every part of being with this bank over the last decade has been hell, but this is the final straw for me. Is there ANYTHING I can do to fix this? I plan on sending my parents a photo of my bank card with my ID so someone who can go into a branch in person has proof that, yes, I am the only person with my bank card and that someone from BMO needs to contact me ASAP to fix this fucking mess that they created. If anyone knows how to get in contact with this bank other than via phone, I would really REALLY appreciate it. I've been going through this for two months now trying to find new ways to just survive and pay my bills while working an insane amount and now my account is completely frozen.

For extra information: getting a credit card as a foreigner in Japan is a nightmare, inaka banks only give you bank cards for getting cash out of your account and "online" cards for logging into online banking, but no debit option as it is primarily cash based in the Japanese country side so I cannot pay my bills through my Japanese bank account.

Thinking of switching because every time I needed to talk to a support the phone line wait times are estimated to be 3-4 hours no matter when I call.