Telling your bank/credit card co. that your are travelling abroad...

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

I've just been on the phone to Santander (I have a CC with them) for an entirely different reason. But while on the phone she said I needed to give them the dates that I'll be abroad. I wasn't aware of this and asked her what would have happened if I had not told them I was going abroad.... She said the card would have been blocked when I went to use it. Good job I called!

She said this is true of all debit and credit cards from all banks....

I wondered firstly if someone can confirm that this is the case.

Secondly though, I thought I'd post this to make other people aware (unless I'm the only person who didn't know it!!!). We've booked a hire car; what a nightmare start to the hols it would have been if the card got blocked when we went to put on the deposit with them...!

Cheers

Max

Gloomendoom

Generally, yes.

Some banks, Barclays for example, allow you to do it online.

meer53

It's a good idea to let your card issuer know if you are going to be abroad, but it may not prevent your card from being blocked. Where i work, we make a note of where the customer is going and for how long, but this is purely in case we can't get hold of them. If the system alerts us to a possible fraudulent transaction abroad, and we can't speak to the customer, we can check recent spending and make a decision as to whether to remove the block or not. If that customer hasn't told us they are going to be abroad, then the block would remain on the card until we have contacted them.

The fraud detection system still works as normal and will block cards if it suspects fraud, wherever it is used. If you think about it logically, removing a card from the system, leaves it wide open to fraud. Lots of people lose their cards whilst on holiday, if the card doesn't register on the fraud detection system, the losses could be huge.

travelgran

Informing the card issuer will not necessarily stop your card being blocked as we discovered in Thailand and Morocco. If we're travelling within Europe we don't bother to tell them and used debit and credit cards in France, Italy and Greece earlier this year with no problems.

Tunstallstoven

Interesting how the banks are telling me different and saying that the cards would have been blocked had I not informed them and then tried to use them overseas...

OK, so this might not even prevent the cards from being blocked... What else can be done to ensure a card can be used overseas with no problems?

SaveTheEuro

I usually don't tell the bank when I'm going abroad. I've never had a block placed on a card but I did receive a phone call to check on possible fraud after I made a €3 payment for a road toll in Dublin.

meer53

Seagull27 wrote: »

Interesting how the banks are telling me different and saying that the cards would have been blocked had I not informed them and then tried to use them overseas...

OK, so this might not even prevent the cards from being blocked... What else can be done to ensure a card can be used overseas with no problems?

Nothing. Just make sure you take more than one card with you in case it does happen.

I've never had a card blocked abroad, and we've hired several cars. I never let my bank know when i'm going away either.

bazster

I used to do this but I haven't bothered for some years, during which time I've been to various European countries and the US without any problem.

Bob_the_Saver

Doesn't seem to matter,
Even if you tell them they seem to do it for a laugh. ALWAYS take several back-ups

peachyprice

Having had a card blocked by Barclays whilst travelling in Switzerland and having to wait several days for it to be unblocked, I always tell my bank now.

There's usually a trigger amount, so if you're using several different cards it's quite likely you've never reached that amount on any one card, therefore haven't had any blocked.

Doshwaster

Seagull27 wrote: »

Interesting how the banks are telling me different and saying that the cards would have been blocked had I not informed them and then tried to use them overseas...

If banks blocked every card that was used abroad without their knowledge they would be doing it to millions of customers every year. Certainly, if you don't tell them then the changes of it happening are higher but there are no guarantees either way.

If you are going to be using credit cards then I would suggest having two cards from separate banks in case one decides to block you.