Capital One Redux - the "fun" continues ...

Alas, it is not uncommon for credit card companies to be more concerned about their loss exposure than in client convenience. I can say that I have had fairly good results with cards issued by Chase, including the AARP brand and the United (Airlines) brand.

It's worth noting that I have had these cards for years and years. Many people change cards often, to cash in on bonus offers. It's not unreasonable for a credit card company to tread a card with 20 years of little fraud differently from a card that's just been issued. (Tell us about your Cap One ... ) BTW, I have had to replace each of the cards I named at least once, due to, probably, duplicate swiping by an employee while the card was out of my sight. That's why the long-time European standard of a wireless terminal put on the table in front of you is so much better.

I believe that one of my Chase cards has told me that I don't need to make advance Travel Notifications any longer!

Edit: Although I still have an American Express card, decreased acceptance and reluctant acceptance have greatly reduced my use. Despite their claim that there is no preset spending threshold, I have found that (presumably due to low usage) I cannot charge large amounts (like cruise fares or group tours) to the Amex Card without calling them in advance. That defeats the purpose of the card. I would have closed it, except that I get a few regular deals (I am not referring to points, which I do not pay to participate in) that defray the annual fee - the only annual card fee I pay.

Craig - I can't quite figure out where this got messed up with CapOne, as we've used our CapOne card for this stuff routinely, without any issues, including EasyJet, RyanAir, NAS (the latter two within the last half year) and other occasional purchases. However, it so happened that I was calling CapOne today to report routine travel on our cards (don't care that they say it's not necessary, we are still going to do it), and while there brought up your story. CSR's suspicion was that it was the repeated foreign air purchasing that triggered the alerts, and that it should have generated an e-mail or phone call to you at that point for you to respond to. She also said that it is possible that the airline site you were suing did not permit your billing address to be entered in the format that appears with CapOne. Don't l know if any of this helps.

Craig,

If I had that much trouble with a credit card, I'd get rid of it immediately. I wouldn't put up with the type of cr@p that you've described here.

I'm with Larry on this. If there was a question about any purchase that was made with my card, I ave always gotten a text message or email from CapOne asking 'is this you?' I've never had transactions turned down repeatedly at point of sale like you have been experiencing. I would call the fraud department and see if they can shed some light on it.

Pretty sure I've used my AMEX for all similar advance purchases, with no issues at all. Actually never even gave it a thought sitting in my living room buying plane, train, museum, etc. tickets. I've just used that card out of habit, since I'd envisioned using it mostly for travel expenses when I got the card. Before traveling abroad last year, we did notify all our card issuers of our plans and had no issues using MC and Visa cards for a few retail purchases. We used mostly cash for restaurant and other everyday expenses. Also, if I recall, AMEX specifically told me I didn't need to notify them before traveling.

I've run into a lot more problems using credit cards in the U.S. Trying to use a card in a grocery store in Arizona or Florida, for example, it's often been declined at first. It's easier to sort out now that I get a text message and can just reply to assure them it's me. And I've also had to replace my cards several times because of fraudulent activity. I guess it just goes with the territory in our online world.

Actually, I had the same experience recently with my United Mileage Plus Visa, which I have had for years. I think the credit card companies are becoming more vigilant in trying to prevent fraud. Unfortunately, it's a major inconvenience for customers. I purchased airline tickets to Europe with the card, so in the best of all possible worlds they would realize I was planning travel to Europe and wouldn't decline a payment for train tickets or opera tickets, for example. I purchased the airline tickets in November and was making my other purchases in January. After being declined, I called them and had them note on my account that I was going to be making online purchases on European websites. But they can/will only put this on my account for 30 days; then I will have to call and renew if I'm still planning purchases. And call again prior to leaving the country in May so we'll have the use of the card while traveling.

I have always had issues buying airline tickets to Europe with CapitalOne from a European airline. They always decline on the first attempt. However, I instantly get a text message or email that I respond to and then I retry my online purchase again and it is always successful.

But, other foreign online transactions go through without even a hickup from my home, yet they will call me when I have too many transactions at the cafe in my office building. That is what is frustrating. Seems their fraud system needs a bit of improvement.

On the other hand, as long as I remember to inform them I am traveling, I have never had any transaction declined while I was actually in Europe attempting to pay for something with their Card.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post. I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in dealing an ever changing landscape of credit card practices and policies. For the my upcoming travels, and now that my airline ticketing is completed (SAS, Norwegian & BA), I'll try the following plan when traveling internationally: Capital One for in-person POS transactions and AmEx for online transactions. Fingers crossed.

I have Cap One card and just recently made a purchase. I called ahead of time and had the exact amount noted. I had already searched and "booked" my flight, so I knew what the amount would be. After making the purchase, I checked my emails, I had two from Cap One. The first was about "there was a transaction for $amount on this account, if you did not make the purchase please ....blah, blah, blah. The second email said words to this effect, " if you made this transaction for $ amount, please click here".

In the past, whenever I did not call Cap One ahead of time, you know before the purchased was refused. I would call CapOne and the agent would always stay on phone with me while I resubmitted the purchase. Once again, never had a problem.

Hope this helps.

Sometimes I think the loss prevention people at some of the card companies are just stupid. My husband had to stop using his Visa for a while because he was constantly called on the phone at the crack of dawn to verify smallish domestic online purchases for ordinary kinds of things. [He's partially disabled, so he makes most purchases online, and since he's retired he prefers to sleep until noon, so the calls really disrupted his life for a few months.] He had to finally go to our bank branch and have a fit with the manager threatening to close all of his accounts and then go through several levels of telephone supervisors at the bank's Visa number and promise to close his account and tell all of his friends if this didn't stop happening. That seemed to work.

I know the Capital One card is often recommended here, but why? Is it because of low (or zero) foreign transaction fees? If so, there are other cards that offer that as well. What is their reward system? Do they offer reward flights?

I am not thinking of getting one---we are happy with our airline miles cards and AmEx with Starwood points. But I am curious why the Capital One card has so many fans. They are fairly aggressive in their promotions---we get an offer from them in the mail every week or two. I am always suspicious of companies that market aggressively, figuring there is a "gotcha" somewhere. And someone is paying for all that bulk mail advertising.

I use my Capital One card almost exclusively for European travel. About once a year, I pre-purchase an EasyJet ticket and the charge is approved (only about $50). However, following that approval, I do get a fraud notice and have to call the bank. They've said to me that this specific category of international transportation is a common source of fraud, so they flag it regardless of my spending history.

Lola, My Venture Cap One card has no transaction fees and a good exchange rate, but I also like how they organize their travel rewards...helps me save money on my trips. I, too, have had no issues with Cap One, but I do get an email after purchasing airline tickets from BA, which I appreciate.

The CapOne reward is 1.5% cash back. This is I think superior to miles or hotel points cards which have an annual fee (except IHG, Choice, Hilton).

Also the same people offer bank accounts with no fee ATM cards which I've used all over.

So if you spend $10k on the card, you get $150 back?

I am probably not a typical traveler here----I would rather have the 10k miles, as we much prefer to fly Business Class for the sake of my husband's back and our general comfort. $150 will not go far toward that. I do not mind the annual fee for the miles Cards. And one, from Alaska Airlines, offsets the annual fee with a Companion Certificate and free checked bags.

Is there anyone here who can state the actual cash value of the 10,000 miles (assuming here 1 mile/per dollar spent)? I have never been able to find an apples-to-apples comparison of miles vs. cashback.

And one, from Alaska Airlines, offsets the annual fee with a Companion Certificate and free checked bags.

Right, I kept one of these cards for an extra year (after earning the miles signup bonus) for that reason as I knew that I would be checking 5 bags on an upcoming trip so worth the $75. There's an implied loyalty to one airline in you credit card plan. I gave up on loyalty and fly the cheapest, Icelandair, Condor, Sun Country, whatever, and think I am coming out ahead than always flying say Delta and using the Delta card for all my purchases. And getting cashback is as hassle-free a bonus as possible, using miles can problematic on legacies like Delta (but a breeze on others, like Southwest, where points reservations can be canceled for free). But everyone's habits and preferences differ.

Is there anyone here who can state the actual cash value of the 10,000 miles (assuming here 1 mile/per dollar spent)? I have never been able to find an apples-to-apples comparison of miles vs. cashback.

You could search on Flyertalk, but remember there are a lot of hidden costs with miles programs: time involved to use them, the fact that another airline may be offering a much cheaper cash fare which discounts the actual value for your points ticket, the time costs in adding a stopover in Detroit to get the lowest miles fare, etc.

Larry---I have seen various estimates of what a "mile" is worth, but it depends entirely on how you use them.

10K miles on Alaska Airlines will get you a round-trip within Alaska, say from Anchorage to Juneau and back, which is worth around $350 in high season. That is 3.5 cents of value per mile.

We don't use them for domestic travel, apart from spending them on other people. We fly our daughter home from New York for holidays with the miles. This past Christmas by the time she knew when she could get off work, airfares had gone up, but so had the miles cost. The $800 ticket cost us 30K miles, so the miles were worth 2.6 cents each.

My best score was First Class to Australia on Qantas. That took 70K miles for each of us, plus $6. Those seats were worth around $7500 each---which I would never pay. But it was a nice relaxing way to get to Oz. Those miles were worth 10.7 cents.

Note that we don't earn all those miles by credit card spending. There are other ways, such as flying, and shopping through the mileage plan. (My favorite outdoor outfitter gives 5x miles per dollar spent).