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New policy at BofA locks cards if used in distant cities without prenotifying them.
Hotel check-in was lots of fun last night.
From now on I use AMEX for travel.
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I've had the same problem... several times.
If I know I'm going away (and planning on really using the card), I call BOA before I leave and they take my travel info so there are no problems.
I don't have a problem with it, as about 15 years ago, BOA caught some foreign nationals trying to use my card in LAS (a $5k cash advance at a casino) while I had used my card a few hours before in the local pharmacy here in WV. No way I could have been there in 3 hours. ;)
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Even though I do not use BofA (don't like them) they do that to protect you the customer. I am shocked they did not notify their customers of that in their TOS or in mail or something. Is the wait on the phone that long (of course calling before you leave the USA) to not make the effort in calling them?
New policy at BofA locks cards if used in distant cities without prenotifying them.
Hotel check-in was lots of fun last night.
From now on I use AMEX for travel.
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I never use them for travel - I live in the philadelphia suburbs and on a weekend trip to nyc - I used my card to pay for my hotel (only use of that card) - they froze it after that. That did it for me.
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Just used mine in Central America last month with no problems.
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Even though I do not use BofA (don't like them) they do that to protect you the customer. I am shocked they did not notify their customers of that in their TOS or in mail or something. Is the wait on the phone that long (of course calling before you leave the USA) to not make the effort in calling them?
Let's be real here....BoA does this to protect themselves. The law states that you cannot be liable for more than $50 of fraudulent charges should your card be stolen. It is in their interest to be vigilant against suspicious activity, since they will be the ones stuck with most of the bill.
I don't mind that they do it, however it does seem strange for a card aimed specifically at travellers.
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They have done this to me on at least five occasions in the past two years.
My biggest issue with it is that they always call my HOME number to leave a message that they have frozen my account. I finally got wise and changed my "home" phone number to be my cell phone.
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I've used the BofA card in Europe many times with no problems. In any event, I always carry at least 3 cards, including my bank's debit Visa card.
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Even though I do not use BofA (don't like them) they do that to protect you the customer. I am shocked they did not notify their customers of that in their TOS or in mail or something. Is the wait on the phone that long (of course calling before you leave the USA) to not make the effort in calling them?
BofA doesn't do it to protect you the customer. They are protecting their own ASSets. They cover all fraud costs except for a $50 deductable. They aren't making a $25 phone call to save you $50, they are doing it to save them $$$.
BofA is overly aggressive at this and are losing customers as a result of the practice.
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On a semi-related note, I was once doing some heavy traveling, and had charges in Europe and various places in North America. Then I got a call from the credit card company asking to verify a charge. Was it $1500 hotel bill in Copenhagen? Nope. And not any large travel expenses.
They were asking about the $40 charge at a Walmart in Wisconsin.
(and I have to get it to them - that was the one most out-of-character expense)
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You can call. You can email. But it won't do any good, I regularly carry another card even when I am trying to reach the $25,000 for the 15,000 preferred miles early in the year. They have frozen my account at least five times in the last year and a half. It's getting to the point I prepare the desk clerk by saying "I don't know if this will go through"-- sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't--very embarrassing. Then you have to go through a tweny minute drill and give familbackground information two or three times to get to security to unfreeze it. The last charge that flagged the account was for an online service I use with my business--$1.25. They lost over $2,500 in charges since I used another card when they froze it and I was out of state. :td:
Does anyone know if Juniper Bank operates the same way? I sure hope not. I am looking for customer service that truly is customer service.
P.S. Don't dispute a bill like with any other credit card, since they always find that it is between you and the merchant. Doesn't matter if overcharge or billed for something that didn't get. So long as the merchant has the three digit number on the reverse side--you lose. :td:
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Yeah, they do it to me ALL the time. I carry two other cards just for that reason. It is fun when I call up and they say " Well Mr. iCorpRoadie, where was your card used last?" I tell them it was prob in X City, Y City, Z City, and so on...... they say wow, you travel alot!!! You think????? That was just this week!!!!!
I try and let them know prior to anything that I will be using it alot but they don't care.......just use the other cards...
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Ok- here's one. So do they freeze your account when you travel out of the country, or could you go just out of the state? Just went SEA-LAS and didn't have a problem with it. Concerned if I am going somewhere else though. I love AMEX for travel though.
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I once had BoA security decline a charge on my US Airways DM (BoA) credit card at the US ticket counter in LAX!
A bit overzealous, I'd say. Lunch, at a nearby mexican place, was not declined.
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All the Bankcards do it. They pretend to be in the same league with the T&E folks like AMEX, but in reality, whether its platinum, or "Signature", to them, these are all basically unsecured loans. You want to use your Visa unencumbered, call them before you leave (kind of like asking your mommy for permission to go). Best one yet. I go to London for a few days last week, come back, check messages, and find one from B of A, telling me there is suspicious activity on my account, and they are suspending it because they haven't heard from me. I call, find out the charges total a few hundred bucks against a $25K limit. Firstly, I point out that when I am in Europe, calling my home phone probably isn't the most efficient way to reach me. I then ask what they find so exotic about someone with an affinity card, issued by an international airline, traveling in Europe. Finally, they explain that what alarmed them were gas station charges approaching $100 each. I ask the genius on the phone if they are aware gas now costs $8 a gallon in places like England, and invite the guy to do the math on a 12 gallon tank. It goes right over his head, he takes a sip of the Kool Aid, and starts giving me the corporate barf about protecting me, and I end the call with a better understanding of why the term "affinity" is used in conjunction with a joint venture of these two companies. :D
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Well I hope for the sake of you all that this new card company that is taking over is much better servicewise. Like I said I never liked B of A. When I stated to protect you I was hoping along the lines that most CC companies would do the same since there is so much credit card fraud going on.
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Does anyone know if Juniper Bank operates the same way? I sure hope not. I am looking for customer service that truly is customer service.
Sure do.
Even to the point that, as techgirl mentioned above, they call your home number to verify.
I ranted about this on the Visa board a few weeks ago. Absolutely ridiculous policies will only serve to alienate customers. This time, I just cut the card up and never answered their "verification" phone call. Screw 'em. I don't need to use their line of credit if it's going to be so unreliable.
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In the past few weeks, my credit union has sent out an oversized postcard, put a notice in the last monthly statement, did an alert pop-up notice when you signed into your account online, and posted an alert (http://www.congressionalfcu.org/aboutus/newsevents/newsletters.php#2) linked from the home page stating to please advise them if you are going to be using their debit & credit cards overseas as they have begun monitoring those transactions much more carefully for fraud.
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For those of you that defends them - in my case there in no excuse. Paying for my bill at the marriott does not look funny to me and if they would have looked at my history, I had stayed there before.
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Use the BOA card in Europe on five seperate trips this year and no snags with the card in Spain, Ireland, and UK.
I've had a couple of instances back home when I'm asked to speak to a BOA rep who queries who I am etc. as security is watching my card.
If my card is turned down in Europe at the hotel, I'd just tell them contact VISA and get me a rep so I can sort it out. Can't say that this would be a pleasurable experience at the hotel, but I'd make the VISA card work for me & not the other way around.
Barry
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Use the BOA card in Europe on five seperate trips this year and no snags with the card in Spain, Ireland, and UK.
I've had a couple of instances back home when I'm asked to speak to a BOA rep who queries who I am etc. as security is watching my card.
If my card is turned down in Europe at the hotel, I'd just tell them contact VISA and get me a rep so I can sort it out. Can't say that this would be a pleasurable experience at the hotel, but I'd make the VISA card work for me & not the other way around.
Barry
I understand that anyone can make a card work for them, but why bother? Along with the BofA Visa, I carry a CitiBank World Card and an MNBA Visa that I have never had flagged. Both carry larger limits and are used more irregularly since I switch between them. It just an annoyance never to know when and where your card will be declined and have to spend twenty minutes going through unfriendly customer service to get to security to get it fixed. It reminds me of US managment. The customer is said to be important, but like US management is treated llike the enemy.
Being in a small town I am reluctant to use it here for everyday purchases since I don't need clients talk about how my card was declined--it's gotten that bad. Yes I could make it work for me, but choose not to.
I look forward to Juniper Bank.
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I have an Orbitz card with Juniper bank. I have never had a problem, but haven't used it much in Europe. Traveling in the US, it has never been locked.
My GM Card, on the other hand...total nightmare....locked it in Europe and wouldn't unlock it...kept saying they would, but never did.
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In a rush to the airport (taxi shows up 25 minutes late, first thing out of the cabbie's mouth is, "don't tell me you're late for your flight.."; my response, "if you had shown up on time, i wouldn't be")
out of cash, so give him the BoA US Visa (they don't take AMEX)...declines. this is in ILM, where i spend a great deal of time (and $$$). use my debit card. good to go, though i now have 29 minutes until departure. inside at the gate, throw out the BoA card to pay my standby $25 charge. no problems. :confused: ???
on a related note, on the few and far between times i'm in :td: wal-mart :td: , they query my zip code when i use my AMEX on the machine. well, several times i punched in the wrong one by accident (different billing address for that one), and i get declined. nevermind that i put in the correct zip code the second time, and have put the manager on the phone with AMEX once in absolute frustration. :mad:
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All the Bankcards do it. They pretend to be in the same league with the T&E folks like AMEX, but in reality, whether its platinum, or "Signature", to them, these are all basically unsecured loans.
I've had tons of problems with Amex doing this to me. Three employers had Amex and I've told everyone to shove it as I refuse to use them. The one bank I've not had a problem with is Chase. I've been in their preferred banking program since 1993 and never have once had a block put on.
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Thanks for the warning. I travel often and always use the card and never had a problem. How did you learn about this?
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You try to make a charge and it is declined.
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Does purchasing your tickets with the card serve as "notification" of your travel? I know that some of my other cards have frozen the account or have required me to speak to them when used out of town without notifying them, but when used to make the travel reservation, the same cards work fine on the trip.
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. . . It just an annoyance never to know when and where your card will be declined and have to spend twenty minutes going through unfriendly customer service to get to security to get it fixed . . .
abe,
I don't disagree that it's an annoyance, just look at the headache that the above poster has with a taxi at an airport. But I just don't share your negative expectation that a call to customer service is going to be a bad experience. Likewise, credit card fraud is what is causing this -- something which is beyond our control. But the bank is doing its job when a transaction somehow raises a security flag.
Unless you're dealing with a taxi or something similar, a hotel or a retailer has a telephone and it is within reason to ask them to contact VISA. Let's face it, your card hasn't been canceled, a hold has been placed on it for security reasons ( assuming of course that one pays their bills ). I've had this happen once every 2 or 3 years with CHASE or VISA -- I have yet to encounter this problem abroad however. In all instances, I have the retailer get VISA and I speak to the rep and go through the identiy process and I finish my transaction.
Now I did have an incident locally last year when I pay with my BOA card at my dentist's office and the card is rejected. I finally flip out another card and I go home and I call BOA and inquire as to what is going on. They acknowledge the failed transaction and they tell me that the vendor keys in the wrong expiration date three seperate times. I myself was very impressed with the security and the timeliness of information.
I also learn a lesson to keep in the back of my mind if a futre transaction goes awry. Make sure that the vendor has keyed in the proper information.
Barry
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I've had tons of problems with Amex doing this to me. Three employers had Amex and I've told everyone to shove it as I refuse to use them. The one bank I've not had a problem with is Chase. I've been in their preferred banking program since 1993 and never have once had a block put on.
I had-- emphasize on the past tense had-- a Hilton HHonors AMEX. After several times of them blocking it, I cancelled. There is nothing more annoying than being forced to call into a call center. Speaking with a bunch of strangers who never see daylight, taught not to think but to simply read off scripts after long hold times isn't my idea of fun.
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The BofA card has been reasonably good to me.
They have occasionally put a hold on it. That used to annoy me but then they caught serious hanky-panky. Now I'm more agreeable to it.
On the other hand when they first rolled out the extra 3-digits US Airways was convinced that the ones I had weren't valid -- they were apparently the same as the ones that they used for testing in US' systems... Luckily that was only a problem when talking to a rep on the phone. The web site didn't care.
So far there has not been any sort of automatic hold when I'm out of town. I doubt that that is an across the board policy. It sounds more like a customer service fairy tale -- sort of like the TSA telling you that your shoes have to come off because "they fit the profile".
Maybe someday I'll get one of the nifty AMEX cards that Deelmakur has ;) Then I'll know the true meaning of customer service ^
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Never had my BofA Visa frozen. Once got a call from BofA when I checked into a hotel in DC and then walked down the street to register for a conference - the conference organizers were California-based so their card readers showed up as being in California. Having a DC-based card swipe followed almost immediately by a California-based card swipe was enough to trigger the alert. Since the call was only a verification/inquiry and not a freeze I didn't mind. This was in July of 2003.
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Tom, the vaunted "Black" AMEX is the biggest shuck going. In the beginning, they did stuff, but I think they finally realized they would never get the spend they were hoping for, and started using the same people for customer service that also handle Green cards, etc. Typical example. I was in Normandy, and wanted an indvidual tour. The agent at AMEX told me I would have to go 200 miles to Paris to find somebody. The concierge at our hotel found a guide in 5 minutes. I could fill a whole thread with those kinds of stories. As for the difference in decline and approval situations, many businesses use third parties to process charges. These people are not in the database of the card issuer, and often have different criteria. One favorite of mine was the carwash in Delray Beach, FL, which rejected my AMEX Centurion when I went back with a second car. They told me their credit card processor would not permit it to be used twice in the same day (huh?).
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If everyone is having these problems (in Europe) where the major banks have switched to a chip and pin system that is standardized in many countries (except France where they use the older chip and pin card) why don't the US and Canadian banks issue chip and pin based cards on "traveler" type credit cards... Dunno, just a thought...
Right now no US bank issues a chip and pin card... Amex did but they switched to an "easy" pass system which seems to me will just lead to more locked cards.....
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In a similar thread here a few months back, somebody suggested contacting the security department and not the customer service department of your card issuer if you were going to travel to a foreign country. It has worked for me so far and I'll keep my fingers crossed. There's nothing more embarassing than to have your card declined in front of a group of your customers whom you have invited to dinner!
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FWIW, I did contact BofA before travelling to Russia and did not have any trouble with my Visa or ATM card. I didn't call Amex and they locked it out. I called Amex collect from Moscow, which probably cost them a lot. :D
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This is nothing new.....my Starwood Amex and United Platinum cards were first put on "protefctive hold" years ago. Since then, I call them before any major trip and have them note my planned travel in my record.
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I always notified, even though I have never had a problem. But thanks for the "Heads Up", on the "Alaska" Visa which I would have used at Christmas in Mexico.
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The only card that gave me a nightmare was a Citibank Plat select card. I don't like carrying change with me and just a typical kind of person that sign a receipt and go. I was at the Starbuck $10 something had to call for an approval. I think Citi card is really picky on little tidy freq amount rather than large sum amount.
Never had a problem with BOA yet.
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I called my MC and Visa issuers AND my debit card issuer (my bank, Wells Fargo). They actually thanked me for calling, and I had no problems.
But I would never risk not having several backups available at all times. My wife once had a credit card rejected by a Paris taxi, just took it back and gave him another. Never knew why, perhaps he had to pay more to run the first one!