Here’s What You Need To Tell Your Bank About Your Travel Plans
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You’re out on the town, ready to pay the bill for all those British beers you and the crew have been sipping in jolly London and then – bam – your credit card gets declined. Why? Well, you never warned your bank or credit card company that you were traveling, silly goose.
Here’s what you need to tell your bank about your travel plans, why you want to suffer through that inevitable customer service phone call rather than risk it, and how to go about it.
Abnormal Charges Raise Flags
Your bank is always looking for fraud. They track your account activity, see what you normally buy and where you normally buy it, and flag anything that doesn’t fit that pattern. So if you’re buying paper towels at home one day and sipping piña coladas in Barbados the next, the bank will think something’s up.
The exact same thing happens with your credit card. If the company sees something that looks like someone might have stolen your card or your identity and jetted to a tropical island using your money, they will (hopefully) freeze your card.
Set Up A Travel Alert
Now, you don’t need to call weeks in advance unless you want to. We’ve dialed up our banks from our departure gate during airport wait times. All you have to do is ask the customer service representative to help you set up a travel alert. This means you’ll tell the bank or credit card company where you’re going and for how long, and they’ll make sure you don’t get locked out of your account while on vacation.
Even if you’re just heading to another area of the country, it’s worth giving your bank a heads up. It’s possible that nothing would get flagged, but it’s better to make the call and be safe than be locked out of your account when you really want to try that cash-only tacos joint.
To get you started, here are a couple of major bank’s resources for setting up travel alerts.
Now go spend that hard-earned paycheck on your big adventure — you’ve earned it.
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