Do you need to put travel alerts on your credit cards? – Councilor Forbes
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No one wants to start their vacation by dealing with their credit card company. However, if you are not notified, you may be greeted at your destination with the word “refused”. If you let your credit card company know about your trips, you can fix issues before they start.
It is not always necessary to alert your credit card company of upcoming trips. Let’s discuss what travel alerts are and when you might need them.
What is a travel alert?
Simply put, a travel alert is a message sent to your credit card company to notify them of your future trips. In the past, it was a good idea to let your bank know about your trips every time you left your home. A few years ago, a bill was turned down at a Walmart in Florida. So there was no need to leave the country to raise the flag with my credit card company.
Fortunately, banks are more sophisticated now, but there will always be times when defining a travel alert will make sense. Travel Alerts are easy to set up, but you don’t always need them.
When should you set a travel alert?
The watchwords are model of behavior. If you’re using your card in a way that’s consistent with how you normally use it, you probably don’t need to set an alert. However, if something seems new or different to you, it will also be new or different for your bank. Here are some examples of when you might want to set a travel alert on your maps:
- When using a new card: I had a brand new card refused at a gas station just three hundred kilometers from my house because I did not have a spending pattern on the card. The bank recorded that I was not where I was supposed to be and reported the transaction. In this case, setting a travel alert would have been a good idea.
- When dusting a card on a shelf: Some cards have specific advantages, such as lounge access or the absence of foreign transaction fees, which make them occasional use cards. If you haven’t used a card in six months and suddenly make a purchase in another country or even another state, you are going to be raising some flags. It would be better to set a travel alert to avoid any questions.
- When you do something inconsistent with what you normally do. I am leaving soon on a trip to Rome. As a travel writer, my credit card companies are used to seeing me bill for purchases all over the world. However, a friend comes with me who has never left the United States. I advised him to set a travel alert because an ATM withdrawal or credit card purchase in Rome would certainly set off alarm bells on his account.
- When you make a large purchase: If you know you want to browse oriental rugs in Morocco, you may want to let your credit card company know. Most importantly, you’ll want to let them know if you’ve used another card for your travels and are removing that card specifically for a large purchase away from home.
When don’t you need a travel alert?
If you’ve charged your plane ticket, hotel, or tours to a card, the bank can already see where you’re going. In this case, using the same card on this non-alert trip should be fine. Chase goes even further. About two weeks before leaving for my next trip, I received the following email:
Obviously, Chase is on the ball, which is good because it takes an item off my to-do list. Since the bank spotted my visit to the Vatican, Chase Sapphire Reserve®I can be assured that all of my Chase credit card purchases in Italy will be completed without the need to set a travel alert.
Even if you don’t receive an email, it’s a safe bet that the card you used to charge for large expenses, like a plane ticket, will already be set up to travel to any country you visit. for the duration of your ticket. Even using your card for award ticket taxes should be enough to signal your next trips to your credit card company.
It’s also a safe bet that if you’re a frequent traveler, your card is unlikely to show up at a remote airport unless you start shopping that doesn’t match your profile. So if you’re a guy whose new girlfriend gave you a shopping list in Milan, you might want to go ahead and set that travel alert.
How do I set up a travel alert?
If you think you need to contact your bank to set up a travel alert, it shouldn’t take a long time.
Travel alerts can be sent to your bank through three methods: secure message, chat, or phone. Whichever method you use, you shouldn’t need more than a few minutes. You only need to set one alert per bank, so if you have two cards with American Express, for example, you only need to set one alert.
Certain companies, in particular American Express, have a chat feature on their website. To use it, you log in and click on the “chat” button in the lower right corner of your screen. Let the agent know that you want to set a travel alert. Write down where you are going and your travel dates.
Other banks have a secure messaging feature. To use it, log in and click on the “messages” button. Label the message “travel alert” and let them know your dates and places of travel. If you are within 24 hours of the trip or do not have access to the website, you can also call the number on the back of your card and notify the agent of your trip.
While you are setting travel alerts, it’s a good idea to set one for your debit card as well. The last place you want to go out is an ATM.
When advising a bank about your trips, be sure to consider transit countries in addition to your destinations. For example, on my next trip to Rome, I will fly over Amsterdam on the way back and Paris on the way back. On my alert I would be sure to add the Netherlands and France in addition to Italy. I would do this in case I want to make purchases at the airport or in case I get stuck in transit and want to use the card outside of the airport.
Doing this came in handy a few years ago when I found myself stranded in London without my luggage on my way to Paris. Because I had put England and France in my travel alert, my credit card company was not surprised to see charges for replacement skivvies in London.
What can you do to stay safe?
The best tool you have to prevent credit card fraud might be your cell phone. Make sure your bank has your mobile number and that you can send and receive text messages while you are traveling. Many mobile phone companies allow free SMS abroad. I use Sprint, but other companies do too. If you have access to SMS, your bank can send you SMS when their algorithms detect an anomaly. Here is a text I received from Chase on a recent trip to China:
Since I had registered my cell phone number and my phone could receive text messages, I was able to immediately notify Chase that I had taken this charge. By informing them, Chase also knew to expect further accusations from China. If I hadn’t registered my cell phone number with Chase, the process could have taken hours, if not days, during which Chase could have declined future transactions until I contacted them.
I had this process to protect myself from fraud in addition to protecting the bank. A few years ago, I got a text from Citi asking if I had charged $ 7 at a CVS in Las Vegas. I was able to immediately send a “no” text message so that Citi would know how to freeze my card. It may surprise you that Citi reported such a small charge, but it’s common for thieves to “test” a stolen number by making a few small purchases before hitting it hard.
Final result
Do you need to put travel alerts on your credit cards? The short answer is sometimes. If you’re using a card that has been inactive or is spending differently than normal, it’s a good idea to set a travel alert. If you’re a frequent traveler who has billed travel plans on the same card you take for the trip, you can probably skip setting up an alert.
Even so, I would suggest taking the minute or two it takes to set the alert. It takes very little upfront time to resolve what could take you hours to resolve at exactly the wrong time when you need to use that card to make a purchase. Being surprised once will teach you the importance of setting a travel alert, whether you are in a Kasbah in Tangier or in a Walmart in Tallahassee.