Credit cards declined

A traveler should always take more than one CC and have some local currency as well.

Capital One CC's don't have foreign transaction fees.

Safe travels.

I kept having one card frequently declined. I finally asked one vendor and they said that the card was experiencing "3DS authentication failure". I contacted the online chat for my card and they told me that due to security issues, this can only be done by calling their helpline during business hours. That's still on my to-do list, but passing along this information in case it helps. I do have a back-up credit card and also an ATM card.

I have had Chase decline purchases domestically when it doesn't fit the algorithm. I now let Chase know when I am traveling to an area in which I don't normally go or purchases that I don't usually make. I always carry another card, but in some instances like buying concert tickets you may lose your place in line for high-demand tickets if you switch cards after a decline. That happened to me in buying Bruce Springsteen tickets.

Here's that article, gifted outside of the paywall. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/travel/credit-card-refused-overseas.html?unlocked_article_code=a4hAU_708GBBN286GFQyl_Z_E9fctxJPQ_YBrriNT9IQZNzfoXqp89wDAiKfIxzQIOuoEPRG1zQCP-jqc0l60rQF0BrankdYgvtUCyU-aOcrG4kHVXjsPnqSK3LKIS1qAoCI85J8It_1U9fKrkjrFp3eZzHdoN8Xq5eOkcmBXSkdD9YeNyzZltyRHxEDPuBvn40YJuk3iVkWdUhKt_I3OOHy3GW3dIvu2dMkNulUHWZCjayCc716G98gaI2GWxKdpZBPRP7LbVVlVolDKdqStsQxrAvsmf6Z3Mtrpys-4hN01lAa-LJ0Z3Z0_dLjaIKNKwDIIiMLP1h4K8d_X1PRzkP_7ac&smid=share-url

I kept having one card frequently declined. (MapGirl)

What card is it? Did you figure out a solution? If so, what was the fix?

I also vote for CapitalOne. I have their no fee Quicksilver card and have never had a refusal while using it. Last time was in Italy and France in November. I also bank with them and have never had a problem using my debit card in any ATM machine in Europe. Also no foreign exchange or ATM fees.

My wife and I each carry two different cards when traveling, We hope we never have all four declined. Most frequently we use the CapitalOne card for purchases. The others are backups.

I allows let my CC company know where I will be traveling, never had it declined.

@Joe: The card that was getting declined is the American Airlines AAdvantage Mastercard by Citi. I also have a Bank of America travel rewards Visa, and I have never had any trouble with that getting declined.

Update: I just called the security team at Citi and it took about 5 minutes for them to enable 3DS authentication. I don't know if the problem is resolved - I guess I will find out when I am in Europe in February 2023.

Mapgirl.....I use the AA AAdvantage MC. Both the one offered by Citi and the one by Barclay. Those are the two cards I use them most. I have used them all over the world and they have never been declined.

Did you notify Citi before your first use internationally?

@ Frank II: Yes, I did inform them of my travel plans. I think the 3DS authentication was turned off in error. Now that 3DS is enabled I am hoping it will work next time I am out of the country, which will be in February 2023. I will set up a travel notification again, just like last time. I have never had trouble with it being declined in the US.

And to add to the travel notification bit, I found that some banks still do want you to set up travel notifications, and some don't. Bank of America, for example, no longer has a way to set travel notifications, but Citi and Schwab do.

I’ve never had a problem with Chase algorithm, but I always bring another card along just in case. I double up on the debit cards as well.

Key issues when choosing card:
No foreign transaction fees
Travel perks associated with card
Any cash back or loyalty points
Annual fee

I’d been using Chase as a backup card, but finally needed to actually use it abroad and it got declined, then declined again even after I called in. That was extremely frustrating. Because they won’t take a travel notice anymore, I now use that card at least once on every trip to train the algorithm. But the Bank of America has a better conversion rate, so that is still the primary card.

I have used my Capital One Quicksilver card in many countries with no issue, and I like the instant text notification when I make a purchase, helps me keep track of what I’m really spending. My other card is Chase Sapphire and so far I have just used it in England, no declines…others’ reports of that are a bit worrisome, might call them and ask if there’s a way to add an alert.

My partner and I are always equipped with a redundancy of at least 4 different credit cards. None will have foreign transaction fees or annual fees. We've noted that fewer companies are accommodating advance travel notification and Chase has been troublesome at times and has been demoted to domestic use only.

American banks in general have great faith in their internal algorithms, even though these cannot account for individual use patterns entirely with fraud still remaining quite high by international standards, and little faith in their users to be able to authorise definitively their own purchases whether it be by use of PIN, text code, or app.

Chase does all three for their British issued cards as it is expected, so could do if it chose for the USA. Mind you it has a lot less fat to live off in the low interchange fee UK payment environment.

I always travel with at least three credit cards and two debit cards, all attached to different financial institutions. On more recent trips, I've found that most of the credit card firms don't require advance notification of travel.

The credit union that issues my primary ATM / debit card has my mobile phone number and that proved to be very useful on occasion. When a problem occurred with the card, they were able to contact me immediately to get it sorted.

Never had a problem with Chase,Amex, Diners Club or USAA

Bank of America however? Total disaster. But that’s OK I figured out how to deal with it. I closed all my accounts (I spent an hour setting up a travel alert but they “forgot” to activate if. I now “forget” to give them $$$😂)

I just finished using a mix of cards all over London and ... not a problem. They are just credit cards, it's amazing when companies act like they were just invented. On my trip last year I contacted every card beforehand to tell them I was travelling and each one said, yeah so what? They so did not care.

However ... had one issue at St. Pauls. When it was time to pay the terminal was awkwardly placed for tap to pay so I inserted my card. This was a mistake. It not only printed out a receipt I had to sign but the cashier said they needed to see some ID with my signature on it. Really?? For a 50 pound transaction? And try to find something on you when travelling that has a signature; luckily my drivers license was buried in my neck wallet somewhere.

They should only cross-check the signature against the one on the back of the card. Some places see chip and sign cards so rarely staff can get a bit panicky over them. Sometimes though it is poor management that is the issue.

WE once had a card declined, at the Ritz in London no less, even though we had informed the company of our travel destinations. It turned out that they had called our home phone, brilliant idea, to check on the usage, and it turned out the travel notice expired after 90 days. Never knew that, and it caused that card to be demoted for local use for the remainder of the time we had that card. That rejection at the Ritz put us on a list of sketchy patrons, at least that's what we think. Oh well, at least they know our name........ We had frequently changed cards to keep up with the offers of airline miles which we successfully used for nearly 10 years.

Oh reading this makes me very nervous.

I have five credit cards and one ATM but one credit card is Discover and I think Discover is not accepted in Europe.

I am going to spend days in London pre cruise, one day in Southampton pre cruise and a few days in Lisbon post cruise.

How have credit cards been working in London, Southampton and Lisbon?

I have Citi American, Barclays JetBlue, Delta American Express, Chase Rapid Rewards and Discover. When I took my last cruise in September, I was told that I no longer need to report travel because the system can discover fraud.

I had no problems but I went to Alaska from Seattle.

I am not well traveled and this will be my second time traveling to Europe since 2019. I would hate to get stranded.

Bostonphil7

We had no issues using our citi and chase cards in Portugal.

I had this experience in London some years ago. I used a BofA Mastercard to augment the amount left on the Oyster Card. I was using the ticket machine where the credit card use or cash was acceptable. Prior to the trip BofA had already been notified of my trip to Europe which would include England. They didn't have that excuse, they had been informed.

When the MC card was declined (I knew it had nothing to do exceeding the limit), I used the coin phone (this was in Kings Cross) to tell BofA what was happening, got though. The BofA rep said the decline of the card was not from "our end."

This card decline happened at least twice, unnerving, since in the end I had to waste my cash (always had that on me) to add to the Oyster card or used another credit card. As pointed out, above, I carry 3 credit cards on a trip.

bostonphil7, for peace of mind it might be worth getting some cash before you leave for your trip. That way you have it as a backup just in case there is an issue with your card(s). I order it ahead of time from my bank (wells fargo) so I don’t have to worry about any issues with the ATM machines in Europe. For me, the extra expense of ordering it ahead of time is worth it for my peace of mind.

I seemed to have touched a nerve.
Let me put my concern into context:
We have traveled to England, Portugal (3 times including June of this year) and Spain carrying just one card (Chase Saphire) for payments and one card (Schwab) to obtain the limited amount of cash we needed.
We have NEVER had a problem.
The article in the NYT gave me pause so I was inquiring if any recent traveler had had a problem.
It is clear from the responses that none have.
That reassures me
To be on the safe side, I have applied for a Capitol One Savor card (no annual fee or foreign transaction fee) to keep in my wallet just in case.
We are going to London and the Lake District in the Spring for my wife's 65th birthday and I am confident we will have no problems

Dennis and Elinore

Thank you all for responding back to my post.

I have relaxed.

I will be taking four out of five of my credit cards. I do not believe that Discover is accepted in Europe. And, yes, I will be taking pounds, euros and even dollars with me.

Discover is accepted where Diner's Club is. So rare but not absolutely nothing.

UPDATE: I just returned from a trip to London and Paris. The credit card which used to be randomly denied on a past trip worked perfectly this time, after the "3DS authentication" issue was resolved (see my posts up-thread).

I use BAC for my primary credit cards and take both. 2019 I used my Travel Rewards card in Italy, no problems. 2022 I used my Premier Rewards card in England, France and Italy, no problems. Both are no foreign transaction cards. The PR card I linked to Apple Pay. But anything can happen, I also take a Fidelity credit card (separate from my Fidelity travel account ATM card) as a back up. Because it has foreign transaction fees, I don't use it and only will if BAC has problems with both cards.

Oh reading this makes me very nervous.

You're nervous? My Darling Bride and I have only one credit card each, both on the same account; and one debit card each, same account, same bank as the credit cards. We've never had a reason for more than one credit card. I don't know about getting additional accounts; we're not likely to travel outside North America after our May trip.

Just take a variety and assume there will be no problems

For some transactions, my CapOne 360 Debit card declines them, and sends me a text from the fraud department, where I can authorize it, and ask the vendor to attempt again. Might have to do a 3DS two factor authentication, with the three digit CVV code, and a 6 digit number they text me. Haven't had it with an in person transaction, particularly in the EU, where they were using Chip-N-Pin about a decade before it was widely spread in the US. Having a nice federal government that was comfortable setting standards and regulations for 400+ million people got that done, while the US had a debate between the card companies on which of two standards they would adopt, until it eventually was settled by conforming to the EU standard, only with an American accent (why some US cards have issues with contactless payments on the Tube, for instance).

Always notify your bank ahead of travel, with your dates and locations, so they can notify the fraud folks who can make entries on your account for the algorithm. You'll be fine.

This is one of the scenarios that occurs to me every time someone here reports how "you don't need cash in ______". I know it's not normal for an American, but I dont have a wad of cards to choose from when I travel, so yeah its a concern. So far, one of my two cards (local, not one of the brand-name banks favored here) still lets you enter travel destinations online. I've come up against that 3D barrier while shopping online. It seems like US card providers would have addressed these issues by now, in a pro-good-customer-service way. But I answered my own question.

when I called a few of my providers before a recent trip to tell them I'd be travelling, they said Yeah so? In other words they couldn't have cared less.

and in a related vein, I was watching a train vlogger going through Austria recently and he discovered that on his train the cafe's credit card system was down so they were only taking cash. which naturally he didn't have, since he travels all the time and never needs it and was heading home.

in another related vein, another train vlogger (possibly the same guy) was on an overnight train somewhere in Eastern Europe (Romania perhaps) and because he had cash he was able to bribe ... I mean upgrade his way into a better sleeper.

On the back of every credit card is the phone number. If it’s declined when you’re in Europe, you pick up the phone and you call the- if it’s not Bank of America they will deal with it. (If it’s Bank of America you’ll be in trouble).

I'm going to -assume- with as many US military servicemen as there are in Europe, a card from USAA won't have issues.

I too travel prepared with multiple cards and cash. Last summer I started using Apple Pay which only failed for one transaction in 30 days in Italy. Using Apple Pay and other phone systems lets you carry even more cards without the bulk.

But what is worse than being declined in Europe, is when the fraud alert blocks a random transaction while you are in the states booking an overseas hotel directly. And then, the hotel website just refreshes the screen without identifying the cause. After another try or two, you might receive the alert. Then, the CC company locks your card until you contact them, and security can't tell you why that transaction was flagged. Just another frustration in the planning and booking process - we get over it and just Keep on Travelin...