Good idea to contact Credit Card company before traveling

[VAfan]

On the first day of a trip from Virginia to Florida last week pulled into the second gas station of the day in South Carolina; after inserting the CC a “see the casher” message appears on the pump. Decided to pull into the campground for the night with out getting gas - thinking something was wrong with the pump.

While looking at my emails see an “Alert: Unusual Credit Card Activity” from the CC company. Determined after a round of “who’s on first” with the rep. they shut down my CC after seeing a charge from another state. So…..if I would not have found out before trying to fill up again I would have been at a gas station…pulling a travel trailer… trying to find a reason why they declined my CC.

The rep. wanted to know our travel plans and return date; said make sure I contact them if we change plans. The CC worked fine for the remainder of the trip.

Probably old news to most travelers – first time for me…….sign of the times I guess.

[4x4van]

mich800 wrote:

4x4van wrote:
While I see the point of banks watching for unusual activity, in many cases it has gone too far. During the summer months, we go to the Colorado River several times for weekend trips. I fuel up before we start out in Banning, CA., then drive 150 miles to Blythe. However, I then cross the river into Arizona to top off the motorhome and fill the jetskiis and gas cans. Every single time, my bank locks down my debit card. The "suspicious" activity is the fact that my card is being used in AZ just a few hours after using it in CA. However, if I drive from Banning to Morro Bay, there is no "suspicious" activity, even though I am now using my card 300 miles away from my earlier use, vs only 150 to AZ!

So 150 miles is suspicious, but 300 isn't? Not only that, when they block my card, my wife's card (same account) will often still work, but my daughter's card (different account, but "linked" to my wife's card) gets blocked even though it was NOT used earlier in CA. To make matters worse, the station has a dollar limit per transaction, and I will generally need 2 or 3 transactions to get everything filled up. It often will work for the first transaction, but THEN block it for the second.

I have even had the bank representative try to tell me that I was spending too much money on gas when I called to get the card "unblocked"! Really? As if it is any of her or the bank's business what I spend MY money on! Another told me that my card wasn't "blocked", it just had a "temporary hold" on it. I asked her to explain the difference between a "block" and a "hold" when I was sitting at the pumps with several other RVs behind me waiting for me to finish getting gas.

I'm sorry, but my bank is not my "mommy" and I shouldn't have to OK my travel plans with "her" before I can spend MY money. With today's technology, banks should be able to send a text and/or recorded message that suspicious activity was detected and that if they don't hear back from us within a certain time frame verifying the activity THEN the account will be frozen. There is no reason, nor excuse, for them to block, freeze, "hold" my account without first notifying me that they are going to do so.

You do not need to call the cc companies unless you never use your card outside a specific area. The CC companies have very sophisticated fraud algorithms. I travel for work and never had a problem. But I did have my card compromised once and they caught it right away.

Sorry, but in the case of both B of A and Chase, their "sophisticated fraud algorithms" are terrible. It happens EVERY time I go to the river, even though I take the exact same route and fuel at the exact same stations every time, and have for years. There is nothing unusual about me using my card in Banning, CA and then again 3 hours later in Ehrenburg, AZ. Yet the exact same distance to Glamis never triggers their "algoraithm", nor does a trip to Morro Bay (which is twice the distance) that we only make on rare occasions.

[sowego]

We contact our CC company to let them know we will be traveling & when we will be returning.

On one trip we were at a Flying J, while hubby was fueling I was inside. The phone rang it was our credit union checking to see if it was us at Flying J. It is common practice for Truck stops to automatically put a $500 hold on the CC until the transaction is complete.

And another time about a year ago we got a call saying our card used for over $200 at a store in Virginia...they figured it wasn't us so did not allow the charge to go through without calling us 1st since we'd not flagged the account as "traveling". Our card had not been stolen and the people who got the number had indeed made a physical copy.

We have no idea how someone got hold of our CC number but I had recently been in the Denver area visiting so I figured it was nabbed there.

Since one way for crooks to nab numbers is to walk by and scan your card right in your wallet, we lined our wallets with aluminum foil.

It sure is a sad we have to go to such pains to keep our financial matters safe! We really appreciate our credit union looking out for us.

[ericsmith32]

We typically don't but that reminds me we should before our trip to Houston. Interesting is we used our Discover from Kansas to California on 70-50 and back on I40 down south. They didn't start flagging until the southern route. Never any problems with our regular bank they know we travel.

[Grey_Mountain]

I was a bit perturbed at PenFed when they noticed nothing wrong with charges from Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, England, Germany and a few others. They never caught it - it was caught only by my checking my account and seeing the purchases. Will not use PenFed any more.

GM

[doxiemom11]

We are full-time and had a note put on our bank accounts that we will travel and use our account debit card in a variety of places. We have never notified our credit card company and our card has been accepted whenever we used it. Credit card is not thru our bank that has a notation on file.

[noe-place]

Same thing happened to me the first time we went out west. We'd been rving for years but living in the east I guess the CC company didn't see anything wrong with me using the CC anywhere east of the Miss. River. But when we decided to go out west several years ago every fuel stop took the CC UNTIL I crossed the big M. From then on every pump said SEE CASHIER INSIDE and so it went for the remainder of our trip through California up to Washington and back through the Midwest. It was a minor inconvenience having to walk in so they could swipe my card but it worked out OK. I called my CC company when I got home and had them flag my card for extended trips during the months I knew we'd be travelling and it's worked ever since.

[RAS43]

I don't know if I should feel good or bad about this but I have never been denied a charge on any of my CC's anywhere I have traveled. Even American Express hasn't been a problem. Now I will say I have not been out of the US, maybe that would be different.

[Fizz]

I always notify my bank plus I get an instant email every time there is a transaction my debit or credit card. Good way to keep track.
Scotia Bank

[Veebyes]

It is still done the old fashioned way here for us. We talk to a human at our bank who makes note of our states to be visited. Still we have had our primary card, the one that earns our air miles, frozen. This leads to some frantic calls.

All kinds of things will trigger a freeze. Once made 2 fuel purchases because of fuel limits at pump of like $100. Boom! Card frozen. Many other times, no problem. The CC number was stolen once. Within a couple hours somebody made a puchase of furniture in the Netherlands. Instant freeze.

Yes it is very inconvenient when a card is frozen but I am glad that the CC companies are as diligent as they are.

[mich800]

4x4van wrote:
While I see the point of banks watching for unusual activity, in many cases it has gone too far. During the summer months, we go to the Colorado River several times for weekend trips. I fuel up before we start out in Banning, CA., then drive 150 miles to Blythe. However, I then cross the river into Arizona to top off the motorhome and fill the jetskiis and gas cans. Every single time, my bank locks down my debit card. The "suspicious" activity is the fact that my card is being used in AZ just a few hours after using it in CA. However, if I drive from Banning to Morro Bay, there is no "suspicious" activity, even though I am now using my card 300 miles away from my earlier use, vs only 150 to AZ!

So 150 miles is suspicious, but 300 isn't? Not only that, when they block my card, my wife's card (same account) will often still work, but my daughter's card (different account, but "linked" to my wife's card) gets blocked even though it was NOT used earlier in CA. To make matters worse, the station has a dollar limit per transaction, and I will generally need 2 or 3 transactions to get everything filled up. It often will work for the first transaction, but THEN block it for the second.

I have even had the bank representative try to tell me that I was spending too much money on gas when I called to get the card "unblocked"! Really? As if it is any of her or the bank's business what I spend MY money on! Another told me that my card wasn't "blocked", it just had a "temporary hold" on it. I asked her to explain the difference between a "block" and a "hold" when I was sitting at the pumps with several other RVs behind me waiting for me to finish getting gas.

I'm sorry, but my bank is not my "mommy" and I shouldn't have to OK my travel plans with "her" before I can spend MY money. With today's technology, banks should be able to send a text and/or recorded message that suspicious activity was detected and that if they don't hear back from us within a certain time frame verifying the activity THEN the account will be frozen. There is no reason, nor excuse, for them to block, freeze, "hold" my account without first notifying me that they are going to do so.

You do not need to call the cc companies unless you never use your card outside a specific area. The CC companies have very sophisticated fraud algorithms. I travel for work and never had a problem. But I did have my card compromised once and they caught it right away.

[Crowe]

Just rubs me the wrong way, that they want ALL of the locales.

When we went to Denmark we said we might be taking a side trip to a few other countries. I would just speak in general terms: We're going to "X" via "Y and Z" so anything in that area should be valid. It's also habits they look at, i.e. you generally only use it for gas, restaurants and campgrounds. If they see a hit at casino or a jewelry store that may be a trigger.

[CavemanCharlie]

Golly, you guys make me want to get a different card. I'm sure mine doesn't do anything like your saying. A few years ago I drove out west to visit a friend. At one gas station along the highway the only way I could buy gas as to put the credit card in the pump. (There was no "pay inside" option available. It's the only time I've ever used my card out of state and I heard nothing about it. Also, I once sent my sister and my niece a Christmas present out in LA. It was stolen off of there front steps of there house before they got home from work/school. I called my credit card company to see if there was any way I could get my money back and they said I was just stuck. My card has none of those fancy options like you all are talking about. I do get rewards and can go on-line to purchase products with the rewards but, I never get enough points to buy anything but junk.

[Grey_Mountain]

I use two credit cards and a debit card when traveling. On my Cap 1 account, I set the alerts to notify me of purchases over $200 and for international purchases. In addition, I notify them of my travel itinerary which includes trips to Canada. Never had a problem.
The other card, PenFed, I got just for fuel purchases. I notified them of my itinerary last year, including travels into Canada. I was a bit surprised to find $10,000 in charges from several European locations. No notification from Pen Fed as to suspicious activity, no lockdown. I found out by checking my account. All the charges were nullified, but I will not use PenFed in the future.
Another poster is correct in that the CC companies are not our parental units; however, sometimes, mother does, indeed, know best.

GM

[afraid_of_bears]

I've had mine locked down for purchasing fuel in a different, nearby town. When we've planned holidays long distances from home we've called the company to let them know our plans. However, we've been told that there is no way that they can guarantee that our cards won't be locked down as the computer system that they use still picks up on 'unusual/out of the ordinary' purchases. Thus, for us, calling the cc company has been a crapshoot.