Credit Card Travel Notification

[Copper10-8]

As a former law enforcement Detective, and having investigated numerous credit card/Identification theft crimes, this is an excellent thread with valuable info! Thanks for starting it OP!

[jtl513]

with all the cyber theft these days don't know if I would give this info online. no matter how secure the site is.

If you don't trust the security of your bank connection then you shouldn't do any on-line transactions with them.

[NMLady]

. ...

I would suggest all travelers keep an eye on their accounts for a month or so after returning home, if they have made withdrawals or used a card abroad.

Kate

 

Why keep an eye on accounts for just a month or so and only if you've made foreign withdrawals? Fraudulent charges can be made on an ATM card or credit card any time. That is why I check our accounts online at least weekly at all times. I do this even when we haven't traveled for months.

[jtl513]

That is why I check our accounts online at least weekly at all times.

I'm paranoid about cc charges and check our two main cards every day when I boot up. Once I caught a $400 fraudulent or erroneous charge the next morning.

[iancal]

Our strong advice would be to travel with two or three credit cards.

 

Notwithstanding that we always call and advise them of our travel we have had cards frozen several times. And usually in back of beyond places. The last two times have been in rural Costa Rica, then again six weeks ago in Thailand. They were also frozen a few times in the US. Our Chase Visa card has by far been the worst offender-the point where we may drop it in favour of something else.

 

And we never let a merchant take our card away from our view.

Edited March 2, 2014 by iancal

[sapper1]

Re the multiple credit card advice----We always keep one card in the cabin safe while the other one goes ashore with us.

[RJ2002]

I'm paranoid about cc charges and check our two main cards every day when I boot up. Once I caught a $400 fraudulent or erroneous charge the next morning.

 

We do the same, through our daily upload of credit card data to Quicken.

 

The last time we had a fraudulent charge, Chase caught it immediately and called me. It was a very small charge, I think for a dollar or two, and then a credit for the same amount. I have read that often times criminals will test a card with a very small charge just to see if it is valid.

[iancal]

And we never, ever use our debit card to pay. We only use it at an ATM to get cash, we always attempt to find an ATM that is inside a bank or bank vestibule. Never one of the white boxes on the street or in a store. And never, ever at night.

 

Either at home, or on the road.

[nana51]

I no longer have to notify my CC or banks when I head home to see my sister in Canada as I go to the same place every year, but every place else I do. I had it refused while in France and don't ever want to have that happen again. Better safe than sorry.

[Randyk47]

And we never, ever use our debit card to pay. We only use it at an ATM to get cash, we always attempt to find an ATM that is inside a bank or bank vestibule. Never one of the white boxes on the street or in a store. And never, ever at night.

 

Either at home, or on the road.

 

Same here. While we had our debit card with us for our Med cruise we only used it once for a Euros withdrawal and that was in Florence inside a bank associated with our US bank. Again, like for our credit cards, we had called our bank and told them when and where we'd be going. They actually asked for at least a list of countries we'd be visited. We're careful with all of our cards but particularly and more so our debit card.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We do the same, through our daily upload of credit card data to Quicken.

 

The last time we had a fraudulent charge, Chase caught it immediately and called me. It was a very small charge, I think for a dollar or two, and then a credit for the same amount. I have read that often times criminals will test a card with a very small charge just to see if it is valid.

 

 

That happened to me years ago -- I had EarthLink and noticed an extra $1 charge from them -- separate from my regular monthly charge. I called Bank Of America and they checked into it and of course removed the $1 charge. Someone at EarthLink was testing to see if I checked my bills carefully.

[serendipity1499]

We always have notified our Credit Card companies when & where we travel.. We also each have a different Capital One card with two different Numbers & we have our pictures on those cards.. Also requested that the Capital One cards keep a low credit limit.. Only use those cards for out of the U.S. purchases..

 

We also have 2 main cards & both our banks now issue Pin & chip.. That is next on our agenda to change our main cards to pin & chip, but will still notify them when we travel..

 

Many years ago had my CC in my wallet & received a call from our CC company asking if we had charged $300 worth of Chinese food in Brooklyn, N.Y... We had never been to Brooklyn & they immediately took the charge off, but it was a pain in the neck to cancel those cards & have new ones issued as some of our bills are auto-deducted from those cards..

 

I also check our CC cards on-line weekly just to be sure nothing is amiss..

 

Betty

Edited March 2, 2014 by serendipity1499

[sail7seas]

......Are:

 

1. When you notify your Credit Card Company of your travel plans and itineraries ALSO notify them of a monetary limit it is to be allowed WITHOUT having to call someone (see #2)

 

 

<snip>

 

Joanie

 

 

How do you know in advance how much you will be spending? When they ask me, I always say we well could spend up to the card's limit. If we have an emergency, I want to know we will have access to high credit limit.

 

 

 

 

Re the multiple credit card advice----We always keep one card in the cabin safe while the other one goes ashore with us.

 

 

 

We do the same.

We always leave at least one card in our safe and use AmEx and a bank card ashore. Not every business accepts AmEx so a bank card is necessary.

 

[iancal]

We had three denied in Thailand last month-on the same day. Tried three times to book a hotel through Agoda, Booking, and Expedia. Denied all three times.

 

Logged in to our credit card account.. Nothing untoward with the charges. Sent them a secure email. Usual response...call us in Toronto...yata yata yata. We were in Thailand. So, we responded:

 

If this is simply a computer generated hold with no fraud attempt then

 

-please elevate this to a senior manager

-advise that manager that there are only two courses of action acceptable to us-reinstate the card or cancel the card and our account altogether. Either action would be fine with us.

 

The card was re-instated.

Edited March 2, 2014 by iancal

[sail7seas]

 

<snip>

. We were in Thailand. So, we responded:

 

If this is simply a computer generated hold with no fraud attempt then

 

-please elevate this to a senior manager

-advise that manager that there are only two courses of action acceptable to us-reinstate the card or cancel the card and our account altogether. Either action would be fine with us.

 

The card was re-instated.

 

 

What would you have done, seeing you were in Thailand, if they cancelled the card instead of re-instating? :eek:

 

[sapper1]

How do you know in advance how much you will be spending? When they ask me, I always say we well could spend up to the card's limit. If we have an emergency, I want to know we will have access to high credit limit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We do the same.

We always leave at least one card in our safe and use AmEx and a bank card ashore. Not every business accepts AmEx so a bank card is necessary.

 

That was my thought too, Sail. It is all well and good to limit the spending in case of fraud but the reason we carry a high limit when we travel is in case we have to make a large upfront medical payment or arrange emergency transportation home from a remote place. Placing limits would defeat the purpose. We are covered for fraudulent use anyway so----not to worry.

[kazu]

I'm paranoid about cc charges and check our two main cards every day when I boot up. Once I caught a $400 fraudulent or erroneous charge the next morning.

 

 

Agree - I am too - I don't check every day - but certainly at least every three if not less. One of the reasons I want internet packages on the ship is to keep eyes on the bank account and credit card. I too have caught a fraudulent activity on both of our cards. DH's was for $5,000.! You certainly don't want to wait until a statement comes to see that little gem.

 

How do you know in advance how much you will be spending? When they ask me, I always say we well could spend up to the card's limit. If we have an emergency, I want to know we will have access to high credit limit.

 

 

 

 

Agree Sail - we have never asked that our limits be reduced or that X amount must be approved first. You never know what could happen and you may need access to that limit.

Edited March 2, 2014 by kazu

[IRL_Joanie]

How do you know in advance how much you will be spending? When they ask me, I always say we well could spend up to the card's limit. If we have an emergency, I want to know we will have access to high credit limit. ....<Snip>....

I always place a $500.00 USD amount when I travel out of country. If I need more, i.e., Emergency Travel, etc., the Credit Card company(s) would have to either contact me via my cell phone or if I have it turned off, my daughter would be called to approve of the purchase/expense.

 

IF and I repeat IF I ever have to go over the $500.00 USD amount for whatever reason my Credit Card company, my daughter and myself have a safe word that is to be used in the case of it happening. We set the safe word before each time we travel out of country and never use the same word(s) in a 4 year period.

 

I almost always have hubby with me and since he has set higher limits for his if I need/want something that costs more I have him buy it:)

 

Joanie

[iancal]

sail...we had two other credit cards. We just used one of those instead.

 

We have changed our card suppliers. We have a Visa that converts currency at the FX rate (most bank cards in Canada add 2.5 percent to the conversion as a hidden charge-outrageous), a MC, and an Amex. We travel with all three.

Edited March 2, 2014 by iancal

[AttilaTheFun]

One tip that has been helpful is to photocopy the front and back of ALL the cards in your wallet (including driver's license) and taking a copy with you to leave in the ship safe and leaving one at home or with a trusted friend/relative. This way, if you get pickpocketed or lose a card, you have the customer service number and info to cancel the Card right away.

 

Also wanted to respond to the OP's suggestion that cards without the chip & pin will not be accepted in Europe - that has not been my experience. The only place we could not use our "normal" credit card is at a train ticket machine in Amsterdam and a similar subway ticket machine in Vienna. In the first case, we had to wait in line to speak to a train representative, which of course, costs extra. In Vienna, I was able to use my bank/debit card, which has a PIN associated with it. With all other vendors, we didn't have any issues.

 

That being said, more credit card companies are issuing chip and signature cards upon request (including Amex), which are more "safe" than the magnetic stripe cards we mostly use in the US today, but could still pose an issue at certain machines (tickets, gas stations, etc.) that require a PIN for the transaction, especially if there isn't a person there to help or run the payment through a different way.

 

Some more helpful info on chip-and-PIN vs. chip-and-signature:

http://www.cardhub.com/edu/chip-and-pin-vs-chip-and-signature/

 

Info from Amex:

http://chipandsignature.americanexpress.com

Edited March 2, 2014 by AttilaTheFun

[serendipity1499]

Attila Thank you for posting this.. Will print it out & peruse it before calling our CC companies..

 

Some more helpful info on chip-and-PIN vs. chip-and-signature:

http://www.cardhub.com/edu/chip-and-...and-signature/

 

Betty

 

P.S. UPDATE: I've searched the entire WEB site & nothing for explanation of chip & signature or chip & Pin cards..

Edited March 2, 2014 by serendipity1499

[djhsolara]

Along the same lines, you can also notify your bank regarding your debit cards.

 

Never had it happen before on any cruise until last year when we were in Curaçao everything we tried to purchase on my one card was declined...and for whatever reason we could not get through to the CC company on the phone numbers listed on the cards. I'm just guessing that it was further away than we normally travel...that's my only guess.

[iancal]

The chip and pin technology for credit cards is not new-it has been around for at least 4 years that I am aware of-probably longer.

 

Your credit or debit card provider sends a card with a chip embedded in it (about 3/4 inch square and shiney). You assign your pin number to the card. Every time it is used the clerk brings a hand held to you, you accept the charge, enter your pin, and wait for the authorization. Now, you do not even have to slide the card into the hand held...you just have to wand it over the top of the unit.

 

Our cards still have a mag stripe on the back in order to make them backwards compatable with older technology.

 

My guess is that the credit card folks are working on the next generation of card protection enhancements.

 

Here is how one retail bank describes it to it's customers:

https://www.cibc.com/ca/credit-cards/services-security/chip-cards.html

Edited March 3, 2014 by iancal

[serendipity1499]

The chip and pin technology for credit cards is not new-it has been around for at least 4 years that I am aware of-probably longer.

 

Your credit or debit card provider sends a card with a chip embedded in it (about 3/4 inch square and shiney). You assign your pin number to the card. Every time it is used the clerk brings a hand held to you, you accept the charge, enter your pin, and wait for the authorization. Now, you do not even have to slide the card into the hand held...you just have to wand it over the top of the unit.

 

Our cards still have a mag stripe on the back in order to make them backwards compatable with older technology.

 

My guess is that the credit card folks are working on the next generation of card protection enhancements.

 

Here is how one retail bank describes it to it's customers:

https://www.cibc.com/ca/credit-cards/services-security/chip-cards.html

 

 

 

I bolded your statement only to ask a question.. Just pulled up the Bank of America info on Chip & Pin cards & their info seems to show that normally a bank will assign the Pin.. (BTW BOA does not have chip & pin cards yet)

 

My question is: Does anyone know what card lets you assign your own PIN Number to it? I would like to get two of our cards changed to either chip & pin or chip & signature, but don't want to have anyone else assign the PIN No...

 

Thanks..Betty

 

UPDATE: Just read the WEB site you posted from a Canadain Bank which says you assign your own PIN number to it..That's what I am looking to get..My debit card has my own PIN but would like to have it on a credit card too..

Edited March 3, 2014 by serendipity1499

[runnergirl71]

I bolded your statement only to ask a question.. Just pulled up the Bank of America info on Chip & Pin cards & their info seems to show that normally a bank will assign the Pin.. (BTW BOA does not have chip & pin cards yet)

 

 

 

My question is: Does anyone know what card lets you assign your own PIN Number to it? I would like to get two of our cards changed to either chip & pin or chip & signature, but don't want to have anyone else assign the PIN No...

 

 

 

Thanks..Betty

 

 

When I changed to BOA because my Chase account was compromised and I didn't want to chance just changing accounts there, it was the first time I wasn't able to pick my PIN. I've learned it, but there are times I start to go with my "regular" one.

 

 

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