CitiBank always cancels my card even if I notify them. Their system can only handle 3 countries so on my last trip through 8 countries, it stopped working and I had to call. Then it stopped again a few days latter. Amex has never had a problem.
Oddly enough, I had a problem once with one US-based credit card when I went to the US. They thought I was supposed to be in Thailand. And the hick merchant in West Texas thought I was the one supposed to call the company. When I did go call from a pay phone – this was before cellphones – they told me no, it was the merchant who was supposed to call and ask me verifying information. I’ve always notified the card companies of my travel plans ever since.
That said, just a couple of months ago I received word from my Chase credit-card issuer that I no longer need to do that. I don’t know how they’ll know it’s really me, but they said they’ll know.
I’ve been questioned only once. That was when I went to Hawaii on my son’s dime, so there was no charge for flight, for hotel, for car rental, just a large ($400) restaurant bill. And even so the response was not refusal of the charge, but an email asking me to call the phone number on the back of the card. Which I did. When I went to Hawaii last April, also on my son’s dime, I tried to call them beforehand, but got put on permahold and finally hung up.
Yeah, we should be good to go. My Wife uses a different bank and has two different cards than I do. We never tied our finances together.
It really isn’t a big deal that I can’t notify them untill 5 days before. It does bug me though, and I can’t think of a good reason for that limitation.
This comes up a lot when it’s a joint account or there are authorized users on the card, and not all parties are traveling. If there’s more than one person on the card; always always clarify with the CC company who’s traveling & who’s not when placing a travel alert. It’s also a good idea to double check if there’s any foreign transaction fees (which BTW can apply even if the transaction is made in US$ as long as it’s processed overseas).
I’ll second the “it depends up on the institution.” Citibank and Bank of America were the worst. Notify them and they’ll still lock up the card until you call, sometimes multiple times on the same trip. The best way to call is to use the “outside the US call collect” number on the back of the card. The next question is how do you call collect to the US?
- Before you leave, record the toll-free access numbers from AT&T for each country you’ll travel to or through.
- When your card is declined, go to a pay phone if the business won’t let you use their phone. Don’t use your hotel room phone because the hotel will probably charge for the call.
- Dial the access code, listen to the prompts and select “Collect call”, then punch in the phone number on the back of the card. Do not punch in the American toll-free number. It is not toll-free from outside the US and probably will cost more than a buck a minute should you try.
- It may take 2 or more times for this to work. It’s normal. The bank may not answer the “do you accept this call” question fast enough.
PS-The Discover Card is rarely usable outside North America. You can leave it at home.
FWIW, I used my Discover card in the Caribbean.
Isn’t the Caribbean part of North America?
Never really thought about it. 
Lesse…Wikipediasays:
Since they specifically call out Geopolitically, I’m going to claim there must be another angle on it where it isn’t part of North America.
Yeah. Either that, or I’m just wrong.
I suspect I know what bank you’re with (in the OP) and I suspect I’ve worked on that system. The reason is because of quirks in how the risk modelling system works. Generally they’re not quirks that would seem reasonable to the customer but in the end it is cheaper to bend the submission rules to the system than change the system.
Essentially there are multiple systems involved (both inside and external to the bank) in attempting to model transaction risk for when a card is suddenly used outside of the normal habits of the user. Customers get really pissed off when they take an unexpected trip across the country and the card gets rejected. But they also get pissed off when suddenly their card is used on the other side of the country (or the world) and the bank doesn’t do anything to stop it.
When you give a travel notification you are essentially saying “ignore whatever your risk models say and accept the transaction.” Getting all of those myriad systems involved in modeling and accepting transaction to talk to each other in the same way at the same time in a way that doesn’t open the risk door too much introduces lots of quirks and oddities that seem really stupid from an end customer perspective but generally do have reasons (which then can’t be explained because banks generally don’t talk about their risk modeling or systems since that opens them up to manipulation).
Also note that often the systems involved in credit card risk modeling and debit card risk modeling are different and handled by completely separate groups at many institutions.
So if you have both types of cards with a single institution and plan to use both when traveling, be sure to be explicit about which are going with you and confirm that your notification applies for both or if you need to do them separately.
Oh, and to keep responding to myself. At many banks they no longer ask that people notify them of travel. This is because they’re modeling an response methods have advanced so that they no longer allow for the “ignore the model and let it through” option. In 5 years all the major and medium banks will probably be doing the same and travel notification will become a thing of the past.
All, that explains a lot, obfusciatrist. Thanks.
I suspect (cynically) that the “perfection” of the risk model will mean that someday, you’ll be on the road and your card will be refused, and the card company will insist that their model guarantees there’s no conceivable way you could be traveling right now, and could you please wait for a few minutes on hold while they dispatch the local police to your location to arrest you for CC fraud.
Because, you know, the computer’s never wrong.
Perhaps, though that isn’t my experience as the direction it is moving.
What I’ve seen is generally towards allowing more transactions that previously would have just been a blanket rejection, partly because modern technology provides more opportunities for intermediate responses. Such as allowing the transaction but immediately notifying the customer by cell phone (which they’re much more likely to get while traveling) to verify the transaction. Or doing the same through a push notification to the users mobile app.
But yes, there will always be false positives and rabbit holes. Like I said, customers get crazy mad when it is made too hard for them to get their own money and crazy mad when it is too easy for someone else to get it. It’s a fuzzy line (with definitions that vary from person to person) and people and situations will end up on the wrong side of it.
Two anecdotes. My Visa card is Bank of America. They definitely will freeze the card if they see anything usual, which includes transactions abroad.
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Traveled to Italy with the family. After a few days I got a decline trying to pay for dinner in a restaurant. Tried my other Bank of America Visa. Got another decline. Got on the phone with the bank and they had detected an unusual spending pattern. This is automated out the wazoo. Card was released in short order.
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While still in the U.S., I bought four plane tickets to Quebec online. Declined. I called and they considered this a foreign transaction and out of my usual spending pattern. It was Air Canada so I guess the bank doesn’t know where I’m sitting at the moment I make the charge. Once again, card was released after some fuss.
In both cases the bank tried to tell me that their fraud detection was for my protection.
Me: “If there were actual fraud on the account, how much would I be liable for?”
Rep: “None.”
Me: “So, how is this for *my *protection? Aren’t you inconveniencing me for your protection?”
Rep: “”
See how happy you’ll be when you are in the position of having to prove that it was fraudulent and meanwhile don’t have access to that credit while doing so.
Or when you’re this person:
“I never use my credit card so I don’t actually ever open my statement when it comes and so how was I supposed to know that charge was there three months ago and so I never paid it and now have lots of fees and a credit ding! Why were you so stupid to let it go through? I never even use that gas station! This is all your fault! I’m going to go on the internet and tell people how yet again a big bank if fucking the little guy!”
I see your point from a practical standpoint, but I used to work managing a billing and payment system for an online merchant. The customer never has to prove that a charge is fraudulent. The customer disputes the charge, and the charge is reversed (chargeback) and the merchant has the burden of proof. We had tons of those. In those days, if the transaction was card-not-present, the merchant usually lost.
As far as having a fraudulent charge and not noticing, well, vigilance is one of the duties of having a credit card. You really do need to read your statements–your agreement spells this out quite clearly. No leg to stand on there.
And last, if you think that banks will shake in their boots at the thought that someone might give them a reputation for fucking the little guy, tell me one bank that doesn’t already have that reputation.
I see a potential problem there if the person is travelling *overseas *and the mobile link in the bank’s record is not available in realtime (i.e. at best they wait until they find a web-cafe to go on Skype, to avoid data roaming costs).
I only wish I could know what is the “unusual activity” trigger for my BoA card when I am in my own hometown at a brick-n-mortar store (I’ve charged 3K online without even a blink of the system). Like I said earlier I have figured it must be a certain cash threshold in the low hundreds but I’d love to be able to know when to not bother even trying the BoA card…
As someone who has to respond to every complaint received by a customer directly or online if we see it and can glean enough information (if it is remotely related to something I am responsible for), I can assure you that plenty of people care. I’ve had to explain to senior executives why someone complaining about how a comma was used was actually grammatically correct despite what the person who posted on Twitter said. Caring doesn’t always mean doing something about it, and doing something about it (if we do) can take a painfully long time. But people care.
But my point was not that the bank is scared, but that either way someone will be just as pissed off.