Paying bills online while traveling

We have had no problems. We have done this for years.

I do it via "tethering" my phone to my laptop, or using whatever free wi-fi I find... McD's, Starbucks, Safeway, Fred Meyer, RV park... etc.

Since 2006 I have used one specific CC for *everything* I possibly can. Online purchases,EBay, S&B stores, gasoline, AT&T, restaurants, fast food, etc. In state, out of state, near/away from home, using wifi whenever/wherever. If I could pay with plastic I did. Paid off the bill every month & got points for purchases, which is like 'free' money since I never pay interest. I charge between $2500-$3500 per month.

In all that time, I got caught by the TJ Maxx thing mentioned above & had to have a new card issued, & lost my card (completely my fault) 2X. Knock on wood, never had to dispute ANY kind of unapproved charge from fraudulent use of my number. Like I said, knock on wood.

I am the OP. I have now added the mobile app for both Capital One Visa and PNC bank. I called both companies and asked about security using free wi-fi like Starbucks or McDonalds. BOTH customer service agents assured me it was totally safe. Although I am not sure I am going to try this, I thought I would pass on this info. I have not yet called American Express for their opinion, but will, just to see if I get the same answer.

Can the person had had the multiple withdrawals through his ATM, please let us know if you figure out how this happened. I rarely use the ATM myself, but would be even more hesitant to do so.

louiskathy wrote:
...I'm not paranoid...just try to be careful.

I absolutely see that now.

Looks like once I return home, I need to show up in person at one of my Credit Union branches and sign an affidavit indicating I did not make those specific ATM transactions. Once I do that, they will "refund" the money to my account.

We actually just moved away from the north coast of Oregon 1 year ago. I vaguely remember something about the gas station scam going on but didn't recall details. This last weekend was the first time, to my knowledge, I have been scammed financially.

I hope it is the last but I will absolutely be a lot more careful from now on.

Our whole family has always had good luck with our CHASE Bank credit cards. They seem really on top of things in terms of spotting irregularities. They have caught a few attempted fraudulent purchases on each one of our 5 cards. So it is not like we live charmed lives.

But the one thing I never ever use my credit card for is for meals in restaurants. I do not like letting my card out of my sight.

Nothing negative to be inferred about restaurant employees, I'm just not comfortable when they disappear with my card and do not come back for 5 or 10 minutes.

RedRocket204 wrote:
So here I am, reading this thread this morning and came across the post by louiskathy. I actually will admit that I read it and thought this person is ultra paranoid about what they do or don't do. Hang in there, I'm not being critical of louiskathy...just thought I had to share an experience from today.

I am traveling for work in Rio de Janeiro. Got here a week ago today, first thing after Brazilian customs was to go to the airport ATM to get local cash as I need it for taxis...I will not drive here, that's just crazy talk. This is a standard thing I do when visiting foreign countries just arriving. Airports are generally a safe place.

All is good throughout the week but I get towards the end of the week and do the right thing...I need to stay an additional week to make sure this critical job I am here for gets done right and complete...the VP I report to agrees. I am close to running out of cash and know I need to visit another ATM to get money for additional taxis this week. The Brazilian local I am goes and uses an ATM, no problem. So, I go ahead and try to use it but it cancels the transaction indicating it can't communicate with my bank. I think, no problem, I will find another ATM later with the help of my Brazilian customer as I don't speak any Portuguese but he speaks good English.

Spent the weekend on the beach, had a nice time. Jump to this morning and I read this thread and figure, I need to verify my cash reserves in my bank so I don't try and over-draw. I look and there are 8 extra ATM transactions that took place Friday and Saturday that I did not do. They removed as much money as they could.

Fortunately, they only got about $550. The good news is 2 days prior there was $5k in that account but my wife keeps me on a short leash and manages our money wisely so she moved the money to a different account. I called her immediately and had her contact the bank to cancel that card. They put a watch on the account for any other activity.

I do not know how they got my number/PIN but I did not see any form of anything on the ATM, as per what things to look out for...same at the airport ATM.

So there's my story. It did happen to me and just in the last few days. Be careful.

louiskathy wrote:

beachlovingmom wrote:
...

I am not sure what other questions I should be asking here. Can someone explain in fairly easy to understand answers, how bills are paid? ...

Thanks!

Not sure if you have been paying bills online but are unfamiliar with paying bills while "on the road" or that you are seeking base information on how to do it.

First thing... pick a bank that will appoint one customer service person to you so you have a direct number to call for help. If you need someone to look at your bank account and give you details over the phone - transfer money - pay bills online in emergencies, you have a personal banker who knows you well.

We bank at a small chain bank in Michigan and found out we can use ATM's nationwide (But I do not use ATM's ever.) We just call the bank and alert them that we're going to withdraw cash... then walk into any bank and ask for cash at the teller. All we need is our debit/charge card for our account. Our debit/charge card is connected directly to our checking account so anything we purchase comes out of our account "at point of purchase". We don't have a monthly statement that tells us what needs to be paid. We have set a safety limit of $400. We can not purchase any one item above $400 without calling the bank. If our account is overdrawn... there is an automatic $500 that will transfer from our savings into our checking. That triggers the bank to make a phone call to us to make sure we're aware. (If our card number is stolen, this hopefully will curb the damage.)

We DO NOT use our bank debit/charge card online.
We DO NOT use our bank debit/charge card at gas pumps.
We DO NOT let our bank debit/charge card out of our sight.
and that means we do not hand our bank debit/charge card to the
waitress and let her go out of our sight to run the card.

We have a PenFed charge card that gives us cash back on fuel purchases. We use Discover and Sears Mastercharge OR paypal for online purchases.

1. Setup an auto payment to each charge card that you always use every month for a MINIMUM payment. It's going to eliminate the huge "you forgot to pay" charges. Even if you setup an automatic payment of $10 it might avoid a $35 charge. Just be sure the auto payment is sent far enough in advance to reach your account before the penalty for non payment happens.

2. Do you have a paypal account?? You can send payments very easily via paypal and it's very secure. It's not just for ebay or online purchases. You can send payments to individuals who do not have paypal accounts. If they do have a paypal account, you simply put in their email address and paypal will get it there. Saves on postage.

3. If you use Discover or Sears charge cards you can pay those in person at any sears store. All you need is your charge card and a check or cash. You don't need to have your statement in hand. If you want to know what the amount is and can't get online... you can call customer service to get the amount.


Hope this helps.

SO SORRY that you had that happen to you - so far from home.
I've never used an ATM so I don't have any bad experiences at it. I just do not like using them. I like person-to-person transactions. But when we need to withdraw cash it's more than $20. I can get small sums of money doing cash back at a grocery store.

We've full timed since 2005 but were using the internet for banking since around 1998. I'm not paranoid...just try to be careful. I just know what works for us and was sharing that.

4 years ago ?? We used our bank debit/charge card to purchase items at a TJ Max ...right before they were breached and many charge card numbers were stolen. Our bank was notified. We knew nothing about it. Our bank saw that we had used our card there in the previous 2 months and they cancelled our card without calling us. It was over a weekend. We couldn't figure out why our bank debit/master card wouldn't work at a gas pump....called them Monday morning and then had to wait for a new card to be sent to us.
That taught me two things. 1. hubby carries one set of cards... I carry another set of DIFFERENT cards not connected to his. 2. Don't use it if you can use a Discover or Sears master card.

We were also hit a couple of years ago when the gas pumps in Washington & Oregon were being hacked. It was quietly investigated for months, very hush hush, but they never caught who set it up. They figure it was an inside job. Gas station employee turn over is quite high I think. Pumps would be closed for a short time as pretend workers switched the data collecting gizmo. When you put gas in, the pump seemed perfectly fine. You got the gas. Your charge card statement was correct. They think that before the shift was over, the pumps were closed and the data collecting gizmo would be switched back. No one knew for months that their data on the card was stolen. Months later - during a holiday or heavy travel time... the card information would be used by the thieves to purchase whatever. It was as if they had the card in their hands. When the story broke, it was quite the news story here. Maybe you heard of it? So that's why we don't use our bank debit/charge card at gas stations.

So here I am, reading this thread this morning and came across the post by louiskathy. I actually will admit that I read it and thought this person is ultra paranoid about what they do or don't do. Hang in there, I'm not being critical of louiskathy...just thought I had to share an experience from today.

I am traveling for work in Rio de Janeiro. Got here a week ago today, first thing after Brazilian customs was to go to the airport ATM to get local cash as I need it for taxis...I will not drive here, that's just crazy talk. This is a standard thing I do when visiting foreign countries just arriving. Airports are generally a safe place.

All is good throughout the week but I get towards the end of the week and do the right thing...I need to stay an additional week to make sure this critical job I am here for gets done right and complete...the VP I report to agrees. I am close to running out of cash and know I need to visit another ATM to get money for additional taxis this week. The Brazilian local I am goes and uses an ATM, no problem. So, I go ahead and try to use it but it cancels the transaction indicating it can't communicate with my bank. I think, no problem, I will find another ATM later with the help of my Brazilian customer as I don't speak any Portuguese but he speaks good English.

Spent the weekend on the beach, had a nice time. Jump to this morning and I read this thread and figure, I need to verify my cash reserves in my bank so I don't try and over-draw. I look and there are 8 extra ATM transactions that took place Friday and Saturday that I did not do. They removed as much money as they could.

Fortunately, they only got about $550. The good news is 2 days prior there was $5k in that account but my wife keeps me on a short leash and manages our money wisely so she moved the money to a different account. I called her immediately and had her contact the bank to cancel that card. They put a watch on the account for any other activity.

I do not know how they got my number/PIN but I did not see any form of anything on the ATM, as per what things to look out for...same at the airport ATM.

So there's my story. It did happen to me and just in the last few days. Be careful.

louiskathy wrote:

beachlovingmom wrote:
...

I am not sure what other questions I should be asking here. Can someone explain in fairly easy to understand answers, how bills are paid? ...

Thanks!

Not sure if you have been paying bills online but are unfamiliar with paying bills while "on the road" or that you are seeking base information on how to do it.

First thing... pick a bank that will appoint one customer service person to you so you have a direct number to call for help. If you need someone to look at your bank account and give you details over the phone - transfer money - pay bills online in emergencies, you have a personal banker who knows you well.

We bank at a small chain bank in Michigan and found out we can use ATM's nationwide (But I do not use ATM's ever.) We just call the bank and alert them that we're going to withdraw cash... then walk into any bank and ask for cash at the teller. All we need is our debit/charge card for our account. Our debit/charge card is connected directly to our checking account so anything we purchase comes out of our account "at point of purchase". We don't have a monthly statement that tells us what needs to be paid. We have set a safety limit of $400. We can not purchase any one item above $400 without calling the bank. If our account is overdrawn... there is an automatic $500 that will transfer from our savings into our checking. That triggers the bank to make a phone call to us to make sure we're aware. (If our card number is stolen, this hopefully will curb the damage.)

We DO NOT use our bank debit/charge card online.
We DO NOT use our bank debit/charge card at gas pumps.
We DO NOT let our bank debit/charge card out of our sight.
and that means we do not hand our bank debit/charge card to the
waitress and let her go out of our sight to run the card.

We have a PenFed charge card that gives us cash back on fuel purchases. We use Discover and Sears Mastercharge OR paypal for online purchases.

1. Setup an auto payment to each charge card that you always use every month for a MINIMUM payment. It's going to eliminate the huge "you forgot to pay" charges. Even if you setup an automatic payment of $10 it might avoid a $35 charge. Just be sure the auto payment is sent far enough in advance to reach your account before the penalty for non payment happens.

2. Do you have a paypal account?? You can send payments very easily via paypal and it's very secure. It's not just for ebay or online purchases. You can send payments to individuals who do not have paypal accounts. If they do have a paypal account, you simply put in their email address and paypal will get it there. Saves on postage.

3. If you use Discover or Sears charge cards you can pay those in person at any sears store. All you need is your charge card and a check or cash. You don't need to have your statement in hand. If you want to know what the amount is and can't get online... you can call customer service to get the amount.


Hope this helps.

It is perfectly safe to use campground/public WIFI to log in to your bank' secure (https) website. Does not matter how much or little time you spend logged in.

We use VERIZON MIFI... Works anywhere you get CELL PHONE service. The MIFI connection is pass-word protected. I pay all of my bills on-line from home using the internet so this is no different for us...

I actually log into the same pay-on-line internet connection I use at home...

Roy Ken