Shall I tell Halifax credit card that I am going abroad?

knightstyle

We always tell them, spent 7 months in Europe last year and earlier this year have been to NZ, Spain and more. Always use the card for everything abroad and have had no problems.

chattychappy

Most of my spend is overseas, and I've written on this often.

My advice is call them - it won't do any harm and won't cost much.

It may or may not make any difference to it being blocked. It might mean that even though it gets blocked, it will then become unblocked again without a further call from you. It might may no difference at all.

Take backups. There is no way to guarantee the card won't get blocked and you can't expect them to compensate you if you find your card doesn't work.

Personally I've long since stopped bothering to call card companies. I always have 2 or 3 payment alternatives. Sometimes blocked cards just come back to life later!

cocobean12

I got a clarity card for this exact purpose when travelling to Florida, I phoned them within a few days of getting it and told them my travel dates, they couldn't have been any more helpful, the lovely lady even gave me some tips on where to eat out there!! I think they prefer to be told upfront rather than have angry customers on the phone with declined transactions! I got the card on MSE recommendation because of the zero overseas fees, I think Halifax have perhaps gained many customers through this and therefore can't really complain at all!

I also repaid in full when I got back, not a lot they can do about it really! I mostly used a prepaid Caxton card tho, it was the best thing I done to avoid overspending.

Have a lovely holiday!

chattychappy

cocobean12 wrote: »

I think they prefer to be told upfront rather than have angry customers on the phone with declined transactions!

It's not really a "rather" thing!

The most angry ones are the ones who did phone.. and then get declined!

Or the ones that get blocked, phone to unblock, and then find they are still blocked...

(agree with the gist of what you say, though!)

guesswho2000

cocobean12 wrote: »

...I mostly used a prepaid Caxton card tho, it was the best thing I done to avoid overspending...

This would cost you more though, as you would be getting CaxtonFX's exchange rate as opposed to the Mastercard rate the Halifax Clarity gives