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UK Electronic Travel Authorization

We are arriving in Southampton by cruise ship in about 3 weeks and we will be there one day.

It is time to go online and get authorization to enter the U.K. My wife fumbled through the website and finally got our mug shots and the pictures of our passports to take. It was not the most pleasant experience to go through twice--once for each of us.

My wife paid with a famous travel Visa card and her transaction processed. But when she processed the second transaction 5 minutes later, the credit card was refused and my account locked up. Two quick transactions from outside the U.S alerted their fraud unit.

The night person at the credit card was not the sharpest person around. I will have to call tomorrow to get the card reopened. I had another card that we used to complete the transaction.

If you are going to the U.K., be prepared to go through a little hassle. And make sure you have more than one credit card to use if there are more than one of you traveling.

Posted by
641 posts

I'm amazed that credit card companies lock cards just because they're used for international transactions- especially given the amount of online shopping people do. But a timely warning to get the ETA sorted in advance in case of problems.

Posted by
201 posts

Maybe due to the fact that the amounts were identical?

Posted by
8453 posts

I usually bring at least 3 cards with me, plus I have about 8 on Apple Wallet, so it would never be an issue for me. But I do agree that it was ridiculous that your card was rejected. I have never had that happen with any of mine.

Posted by
50 posts

It is unfortunate in a few ways...that our credit cards can get locked/transactions denied when we use them legitimately. The fraud controls and algorithms err on the side of caution, and yet we can still get hacked. Thank you for the heads-up. Something that at least one of my credit cards support is to set a travel notice for the card, with the destinations. And one of my other cards remembers that I had purchased the plane tickets and auto-sets for the period of travel purchased.