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Credit cards blocked when travelling (and fraud generally)

Just to summarize major part of the conversation:

Q: The fraud protection of my bank often blocks my card when traveling abroad. What can I do?
A: Get a card from wise or revolut
Q: Oh no, I don’t want to – they say there is so much fraud with them …

Get the point?

Germany

@Peter, I dont recognise anything you are saying about UK credit cards or bank cards over the last 15+ years while outside the UK. Halifax & Barclaycard in the US, Europe, Middle east. No blocking issues. I work all over the place. I think that the Halifax did once block the card somewhere, 20 odd years ago, but I just used a different card. Last 5+ years I specificly got a Nationwide card for its zero/low foriegn fees, told them when getting the card that was why I wanted it and no issues so far with that either..

All of them now want the whole SMS/call you/Email code thing if making an online transaction from a “different” country, which in my line of work is sometimes problematic because I often have work provided internet where there is no phone signal… but hey, I call that good security.

The only time I have had a real issue with any card is that some hire car companies “charge” several thousand Euros to your card without actually taking the money from your account (once upwards of 3k!!) or saying that they are doing this. This can sometimes mean your credit limit gets reached though you havent actually spent alot on the card… could this be something that is happening to you?

Regards, SD..

Last Edited by skydriller at 23 Apr 08:15

The problem with many French bank cards is that they put an arbitrary limit on the daily spend. And I don’t mean at an ATM. I also don’t mean a credit limit. They seem to be of the opinion that they have the right to dish out your money like a parent might dish out the weekly pocket money. Several times I have been caught like this when trying to pay a hotel bill, after a few days stay. To up that daily limit often still means an interview with the bank manager.
It’s like pulling teeth, even when you can demonstrate that your account would cover the credit limit on the card, many times over.
French businesses don’t particularly like AMEX, I don’t know why.
So from reading here Halifax, Wise, and Revolut offer Nirvana.🙂

France

@gallois, the French banking system just drives me nuts… I have had that issue… its why I kept foriegn Credit cards…

Regards, SD..

Get the point?

Obviously we’re running in circles here while the solution exists and it has pretty much good fraud prevention/blocking.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

French businesses don’t particularly like AMEX

Nobody likes AMEX because they take about 2x more commission than anything else we don’t take AMEX at work either.

The problem with many French bank cards is that they put an arbitrary limit on the daily spend.

That is probably just a part of the anti fraud algorithm. If you have say a 10k limit, and you go and buy a watch for 9k, and have no history of such a spending pattern, the card will definitely get blocked (except, so it was always claimed by Marketing, AMEX) and it won’t be any good for anything until you spend the hour on the phone sorting it out.

I dont recognise anything you are saying about UK credit cards or bank cards over the last 15+ years while outside the UK. Halifax & Barclaycard in the US, Europe, Middle east. No blocking issues. I work all over the place

Well, there must be reason(s) for this difference. It could be something unrelated. For example my credit score is zero – because I don’t have a mortgage, have not had one for years, never borrowed any other money, never had an overdraft (or even a facility for one), never bought anything on hire purchase. The last one especially scores heavily because the HP lenders feed everything they have on you, including your payment latency to within 1 day resolution, to the credit reference agencies.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Nobody likes AMEX because they take about 2x more commission than anything else

AmEx had to leave Croatia because they were not able to comply to regulator’s security requirements based on EU legislation. They charge twice more because they have more fraud and then simply have to pay damages to clients.

Last Edited by Emir at 23 Apr 11:46
LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Peter wrote:

Nobody likes AMEX because they take about 2x more commission than anything else we don’t take AMEX at work either.

That has never been true in the first place and is even less tyre today.

While Amex has always been in the upper half of the commission grid (but not at the top where you could typically find Diner and Discover) it has never been close to double the price. The perception just came up as Amex historically both operated as Issuer as well as Merchant service provider. And people added both fees together but only compared to what they paid to others as interchange fees (aka commissions). They “forgot” that they have paid the MSP-Fees to the others to some other party (either their bank or their cash provider typically) where it was part of a larger bill…

These days the interchange fees at Amex might be slightly higher but in exactly the same ballpark as Visa and Master (it is hard to compare directly as the pricing schemes of all of these providers are quite complex. But it is said, that e.g. in comparison to Mastercard while the lowest end of the table (for the really big merchants) is a bit higher, the highest end of Amex is even a bit lower.
As most dealers use MSPs like Helcim, Stripe, Square or even Paypal these days, all they have to pay to the issuer is the interchange fees.

(Just as a disclosure: I do not work for Amex nor do I have any business connections to them).

Germany

Malibuflyer wrote:

That has never been true in the first place

Oh yes it was. At least in Croatia. While MasterCard and Visa were charging merchants 2.5-5%, AmEx and Diners were charging 6-7%. Calculating loyalty points, memberships, exchange rates, merchant fees, processing fees, and transferring all that to cost of transaction, AmEx has always been way more expensive than Visa and MasterCard, regardless of issuing bank behind particular card.

Last Edited by Emir at 23 Apr 12:49
LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Same here.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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