Bugler

I just wanted to remind folks before you get in a situation like mine. This weekend, (a holiday weekend in the US) I purchased four tickets to Europe using the Kayak website. That was late Saturday evening. We surprised my parents' with a trip to Europe and a Med Cruise. On Sunday, I received a notice that my credit card had been denied and that I should contact my bank.

I had presumed ahead of time that before letting the transaction clear, my bank would call me to verify it was actually my transaction, and not some online fraud. They have called me before doing the same. However, on those occurrences, they had merely let the transaction pend until they reached me, not actually denied the transaction.

This morning, I spoke to the bank and they said the reason they had denied the transaction was that it exceeded Visa's $5,000 daily limit. Had I called them first, they could have preapproved an increase in the daily limit for a given day. I have been with this bank for 30 years so perhaps they gave me that information a long time ago in some small print and I had forgotten. Regardless, today, they raised the daily limit for today, in order to let the transaction clear.

As a side note, I always let them know ahead of time when I will be traveling out of state or country so they will not suspect fraud on purchases from those locations when I am on my trip.

Lesson learned and passed on for the benefit of others. Have a nice day.

P_M

Good info, thanks for the advice.

FrankS

exceeded Visa's $5,000 daily limit<<

My VISAs dont have that limit, but I think anyone that is deviating from their normal purchasing pattern might want to contact their bank

Dukey1

I would really like to know just exactly what that "normal purchasing pattern" is. Last week I used one of my CC's to purchase gasoline from a service station I have been using for months. Before I could finish my cellphone rang and it was the CC "company" "fraud department" calling asking me to verify this very transaction.

Christina

I didn't even know there was a daily limit, but I don't blame them as flagging something like that as suspicious. That is one big purchase, I've never spent $5K in one day. I could see that you might if you bought 4 airline tickets or something, though.

FrankS

The only time that ever happened to me Dukey was when the clerk accidently scanned XXL condoms with my transaction.

What did your bank say was the reason for the alert?

nytraveler

A really good reason to use AmEx.. They don;t have limits - or at least that type of limits. I've put a client group dinner of $25K plus on and there was not a peep.

FrankS

Then you are special nyt, because AMEX will call too. Its embarrassing when clients are around, so I had to learn this the hard way

xyz123

Unfortunately, it's the price of living in the modern world. Banks are constantly on the lookout for signs of credit card fraud and buying items that seem out of your normal profile is one of those things. Sometimes, it helps to call. Other times, it doesn't matter if you called. The computer senses something is not right and puts a block on the card and denies further purchases until you contact the bank or sometimes they contact you. I have called my credit card banks and been told not to bother. Other times they take the information and tell me this no guarantee any foreign transaction will not put a hold on the card but it might help. We all just have to roll with the punches, I assume, and try to figure out what's best for each of us.

dotheboyshall

<i>I used one of my CC's to purchase gasoline from a service station I have been using for months.</i>

One of my cards won't allow multiple purchases of diesel in one day. Which is annoying when the nearest station is expensive and you are just putting in enough to get to a cheaper station

RoamsAround

Just recently I was making a $4,500 purchase (It's not all that unusual for me to make large charges several times a year) and after swiping the card the credit card company requested the vendor contact them in my presence. At almost the exact same time the cc company texted me asking if the charge was legitimate. I texted back a "yes" and immediately received another text telling me to have the vendor re-swipe the card which they did and the charge went through. I've had that credit card for almost 20 years and this is the first time something like this has ever happened.

Dukey1

"What did your bank say was the reason for the alert?"

FrankS,

I will get to that but first I wasn't aware of any spending limits, either, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I am not sure what the maximum I have spent on a credit card per day is, or even per transaction is but I do know that I have purchased airfare tickets which were easily more than $5000.

Now, to FrankS's question:

I've attempted this and have decided it is similar to asking for the answer to all the secrets of the universe. The person(s) I have been allowed to speak with have routinely responded with the, "I am very sorry for the inconvenience, ________" thing numerous times.

These people really could make a fortune by conducting a course for politicians entitled, "How to sidestep a question you either don't know the answer to or have been told not to reveal "the" answer to in 1000 different ways."

I am certain that call I received was computer-generated and probably computer-<B>conducted</B> in its entirety. As to the parameters that were given to that computer, who knows?

<B>I have learned this</B>, however: when you are in a foreign (or any) country, and the person behind the hotel/merchant/opera house desk says, "Your card was declined," <B>and</B> they input the numbers manually, I always tell them to do it again. I've had more than one "shouting match" on a long-distance call from overseas with the CC people only to be told, "They input your number (or the expiration date) incorrectly."

nytraveler

Perhaps it's a function of your usual usage. At the time I was doing a lot of traveling, including paying for air, hotels and client dinners - and charging probably about $15 k per month.

If you ordinarily spend a couple of hundred or so and then charge $5K at once - I can see that they might contact you.

Bugler

This is becoming a pain in the rear. I still don't have the confirmation as the card has now been declined three times after my credit union told me to have the ticket processor run the transaction through each time. I had called this morning and the credit union said they increased the limit for today to $6000. They said to run the transaction through.

Later, I get another declined email from the ticket processor. I contacted the credit union again who told me their employee got confused and had raised the limit on my wife's credit card number, not mine. They both pull from the same credit line. So after that declined transaction and being told to have the processor run the credit transaction again, I get yet another declined email at 4:36.

I managed to speak to the credit union again just before everyone left. The remaining lady stated that it appeared the transaction was coming out of Florida (I live in Missouri) and that since Florida was one of the high risk states for credit fraud, the transaction would require a supervisory override. Of course, the supervisor was going by then.

So now, tomorrow will be Wednesday, (I made the original purchase Saturday night) and I will have to start over with getting the credit limit raised to $6000 tomorrow, followed by a supervisory approval after my 4th instruction to the ticket processor to run the transaction, and my hope that all the tickets have not gone up in cost and that enough seats remain so that I still have the ability to pick seats such that my elderly parents don't have to sit apart on the flight to Europe.

What crap.

flpab

I knew someone whose husband was a pilot and he had a co-worker pilot that bought an expensive airline ticket for his girlfriend and they called the home phone to ask if the purchase was ok. His wife answered the call. Oooops.

psych4travel

I think your problem is a small credit union being overly cautious. I've never had that happen with big banks before and I routinely charge 5K+ for travel, etc.

I vaguely remember Wells Fargo pulling that before and so we dropped them like a hot potato.

lauren_s_kahn

The need for the huge fraud departments maintained by credit card companies would disappear if US credit cards would just switch over to the European system where a pin code is required.

xyz123

lauren...Credit card fraud comes in many forms and shapes. While the use of emv chips in American credit cards is coming (but then again so is Christmas) and will cut down on face to face credit card fraud, it would do nothing in this case as I take it the tickets were bought on-line. All that will happen is there will be a massive shift in credit card fraud from the cloning of cards with stolen informatin to online purchases. The vermin running these credit card fraud rings are very sophisticated and have already shown the ability to hack into emv cards. If it were that simple, unfortunately, the USA would long ago have adopted the chip technology. Unfortunately, we will continue to have to live with credit card fraud.

lauren_s_kahn

But, xyz123, fraud would be reduced by pincode cards. It will, of course, never be 100% eliminated, but it can be reduced.

flpab

Credit unions can be a big pain. Only time my atm card would not work in Europe was because it was a credit union card and they still don't know why. I have a back up with PNC now. Love the Andrews chip and pin card though.