I have just spent most of an afternoon trying to get our credit cards and ATM cards set up so that we can use them in Italy without fraud alerts. What a frustrating experience!

Here's the report card:

<b>Capital One -- Grade D - </b>
They win the prize for the worst phone and voice mail system. Cap One has good currency conversion rates, and I like their points program, but their phone system is the pits. First I called them on Tuesday (a week before our departure). Just trying to get to a live person was hard enough, as there is no choice on the menu that says &quot;speak to a rep.&quot; Eventually by pushing random buttons I managed to bring up a woman who spoke such heavily accented English with so much static on the line that I could hardly understand her. Finally she managed to communicate that they couldn't even take my information until 2 or 3 days before we leave.

I also asked her if there were some other direct number I could call rather than go through voice mail polka. She said no, but that I should pick the option to report a stolen card, since that is the only one that gives you a live person! So when I called back on Friday, I did that, and after quite a long hold, reached someone who said she'd transfer me to the fraud department.

Then the &quot;on hold&quot; message gave me another number to call for Fraud, which it turned out was the wrong number. When I called there, they said the office was closed! So I called back the original customer &quot;service&quot; number and went through the stolen-card charade again, to be told (after another several minutes on hold) that I should call yet another number.

The final twist is that when I eventually reached a person who could take my information, I tried to report the phone mixup. Well, he said that as far as he knew, the number I couldn't get through on SHOULD have been the right one, and he wasn't even aware of the number I had called to reach him!

For reference, in the event that anyone else is going away and needs to call Capital One -- the number that worked for me after all this travail was:
<b> 1-800-781-3472 </b>

Next call: <b>TD Bank North, for our ATM cards. Grade: F </b>
I might have given Capital One the lowest grade, but at least we were finally able to complete their transaction on the phone. But with our bank we couldn't even get that far because their database had screwed up my husband's social security number, and they wouldn't accept the call until he went to the bank with his SS card in hand! I suspect this happened during one of the many bank mergers that always put the customer at the end of the priority chain. So there went another hour out of the day to have to trek up to the bank and straighten that out.

<b>MBNA Visa / Mastercard gets a B </b>
And possibly a little extra credit for being the only voice mail system to indicate that they were ready to help people with Katrina problems. The menu was easy to navigate and their service person was pleasant, efficient, and helpful. But I did have to wait on hold for 9 minutes (after they had predicted only 2).

And finally, the grand prize for the best service:
<b>American Express gets an A. </b>
The whole transaction was completed in about 2 minutes, with no problem getting straight through to a service rep. Unfortunately, Amex does charge 2% for currency conversion -- but their card also gives back 2% for travel bookings and 3% for restaurant meals. I should have asked them if that also works outside the US -- I wonder if anyone here knows?

That's a frustration now with almost all &quot;service&quot; providers...

I don't want to deal with machines, I don't want to have to go through endless menu after menu to get a human being...I always try to press zero...sometimes that works but &quot;service&quot; providers have deliberately sabotaged that....they should all be required to use 0 to immediately get a real human being.

Now I don't know if Capital One does it, but I know citibank has farmed out a lot of its customer service reps to India. I will not be a part of this attempt to screw Americans of their rightful jobs...when I have to call citibank customer service the first question I ask (even though from the accent I often know) is where the person I am talking to is located; when (notif) they say India, I insist on talking to an American customer service rep in America. For the time being, that has been working but I wonder if this will be the next to go and I wonder if the Capital One person you got wasn't located in some foreign place stealing jobs from Americans.

With the banks, I usually end up getting connected to a customer rep. in Ireland. Information or help usually none, but! when I insist that I need to get a written statement it works. It's like a miracle,a few days later I find my Info in the mail.

I have a Capital One card and agree their phone service sometimes involves waits, and I think they do have some agents in India, now.

However, I hold nothing against foreigners who need to work for a living the same as anyone else, and don't think phone rep jobs are such prized possessions that all my friends are just dying to have one. har har har, I think anyone who is willing to do those jobs deserves a medal. I also have no problem understanding them.

I remember when I was working on my MBA and later got a decent job in marketing research, various men made the comments about how I was &quot;taking jobs they were entitled to&quot; because of my sex. I guess I wasn't entitled to earn a living as much as they were.

However, I have learned after years of various customer service phone calss to a lot of companies that if you just don't do anything for a while on the phone (don't hit any of the number options they give, which don't suit your purpose), it sort of defaults to an agent coming on, or if you often hit the star key or something.

I've also had the direct number to Capital One fraud dept. for a long time, and it isn't the one you gave. It is this one:

1-800-427-9428

I never have a problem getting someone right away on that line. That is the number I call to tell them when I'm going out of the country, and it doesn't take very long.

For our recent trip to Europe we contacted both Bank of America (our Visa card issuer) and Capital One (for our other Visa card).

I agree that getting through to the &quot;security&quot; department at C-One took longer but they readily took the information and asked for very specific details of our proposed itinerary.

What was off-putting was their &quot;requirement&quot; that we contact them weekly while in Europe to &quot;reconfirm&quot; our presence there. Even though I have a quad band phone which works in Europe I had no intention of doing so. B of A made no such demands.

In Europe we used the B of A Visa card exclusively until the last night when we were forced to use the Capital One card to pay for a hotel (details of why this was so are boring and irrelevant).

Surprise..we had been in Europe more than three weeks, hadn't contacted C-One at all during that time, and the charge went through without a hitch.

It's a laborious process but I don't mind doing it (tto much) because I do think, in the end, it enhances the security of our CCs.

For the automated phone menus which don't permit &quot;0 for operator&quot; but which do offer a voice menu, I always speak a few words of Czech or Hungarian in the phone. I don't know those languages, but neither does the auto-phone. I may have to repeat &quot;vislat&quot; 2 or 3 times, but eventually the auto-phone gives up and connects me to a person.

I'm not trying to discourage anybody from doing it and I know it is recommended as SOP to notify card holders but I don't bother anymore personally.

About 5 years ago, I was doing a trip to Paris and London and noted when I checked my cc on the internet that there were 3 authorisations for $2,000 charges and when I got back I discovered $8,000 in charges through French internet sites...of course I had notified the bank (Bank One) that I would be travelling in France so guess what, perhaps that was why they allowed the charges to go through. A couple of phone calls resolved the problem and the money was immediately taken off the account but while I know they want all the standard info (ss#, moms maiden name) when you make these reports what is to keep a thief from pretending to be you and reporting you will be in say Romania and then you know what....that is perhaps why Capital One wanted you to call them back to reconfirm you were away I suppose.

As I said, I don't bother. They will not block the first charge or two anyway, the charge will go through. this past summer, since my particular MBNA card still hasn't added the nasty 2% additonal fee for foreign charges, I used it (I almost always use Amex at home but 2% is too much for me). Anyway I used the card a couple of times after not using it for a while and the charges went through. After several such charges I got a call from MBNA; I have call forwarding from my home landline phone to my mobile phone wherever. I answered the call and they asked if I had been making the charges, there were probably 4 or 5 charges for amuonts such as $3.52, $5.17, $2.80 and so on. When I confirmed these were my charges, no further problem. Amex has never called me again perhaps because their computers note I do visit London and Paris quite a bit so who9 really knows.

Again not telling anybody not to do it if they feel it necessary, I just don't bother.

xyz, whatever rocks your boat is fine with me, but since I don't have a mobile phone with automatic forwarding I DO want to make sure my charges go through. And if they forwarded one of those calls at about 3 AM Europe time, I'd be upset anyway.

I'm not sure what your point was about the fake charges being OK'd because you called. As soon as they checked with you that you were indeed in Europe, those fake charges would have gone through anyway. In fact I guess if you can charge from some strange country, then any fake charges can come through from there as well, so I don't see any advantage in NOT calling them to let them know you can charge.

Patrick..

don't get me wrong, I'm not saying not to do it. I said I don't bother and one of the reasons that drove it home to me was that I had told them I would be in France and they allowed 4 charges to go through; perhaps because they were being made in France.

It is done, apparently, on a case to case. BTW about a year ago, MBNA started a promotion with AAA that using their visa card at gas stations would give you a 5% rebate so I took the card out of hiding and used it. As soon as I used it the first time, came the phone call, is it me etc. I have also known people who made the notifications and found their card being blocked anyway.

All I'm saying, and don't read in more than that, is that it is a case to case thing and personally I don't bother and rarely have had problems but then again with other banks it might be an absolute necessity. And the same thing can happen while at home, you know you never travel and begin using your card for restaurants and hotels...might prompt a call from the cc company. Do you think you should call them if you're traveling every time you travel?? Not sure of the answer and again, as I said, if you feel you want to or should notify cc banks, I sure as whatever am not saying not to do it. But I do say if you forget to do it, it may not make a big difference! (as a matter of fact at another bank I was told they would take the information butit wouldn't make any different if the computer detected suspicious patterns of charging).

Perhaps I've just been lucky, or maybe it is because I travel so much in the US and to Europe, but I have never had a credit card charge refused anywhere. Have people actually had problems with this happening?

Yes, it happens. Sometimes it happens even when you've notified them as to where you will be. (The phone systems do stink, some people have recommended using the Spanish language option to get served more quickly...but it is a pain to have to call collect from a foreign country if they freeze your card.) Sometimes they may freeze the card when you go on a spree at home ---anything that looks like an atypical pattern to the computer. Since the consumer is only minimally liable (except to the extent that your fees and interest get bumped up due to fraud) , it makes sense for the CC company to be cautious about charges...

I just came back from a trip and call my CC companies and bank to give them the travel dates and locations. There was a bit of a wait in one case, but it wasn't too big of a problem.

Credit cards refused..yes? As I related above we had to switch to the other Visa on out last night because the B of A wouldn't go through.

When we got back to the US I called B of A to tell them we were, in fact, back, and ask why???? that last charge was refused.

The answer: the clerk at the hotel had input the INCORRECT expiration date.

Moral to the story: if it is refused, ask the person to input it again just in case.

I have never had a credit card refused, but sometimes they just don't work. If the clerk doesn't want to make an effort, they will just give your card back. They can type in the number by hand if they desire to or I've seen them put a plastic bag over the strip. I carry a few just in case this happens.

I always call my credit card co. when I am going to be out of the US. I have had more then one friend who has not and consequently had their card &quot;frozen&quot; because the cc co. thought it was being used by thieves.
And having more then one cc is always important in case there is some reason the first card cannot be used.

Regarding cc companies. US Bank reps are really easy to reach. As is AMEX and the reps at USAA.

Nonnafelice, I have found if I don't say anything into the phone when I am suppose to say &quot;something&quot; I then get the recording &quot;please hold for an operator or service rep etc.&quot; YES, that is what I wanted LOL. The next time you have that problem see if that works for you. But of course if the rep. is not understandable, sigh, that is not much help. That is why I love US Bank cc. Best wishes to you.

One situation that will normally cause the CC company to refuse a charge and/or call you is if you have a joint card and one person is out of the country. Charges from 2 countries on the same day (or in the same hour) will cause a red flag. So, in those situations, I always call the CC folks before I leave town.

Happy trails.

I've never had much trouble reaching chase, BofA, citibank , or Amex. When the message starts press &quot;1&quot; or &quot;0&quot'..that will usually take you to a live person!

I have only ever in 40 years had trouble with a card being refused. Both times it was Citibank and was very early(7AM) in France and Italy. when I was told the charge had been refused I asked to use the phone and called the bank number, Both times I was told that they had no record of the charge coming thru but it was 1 or 2 AM in the US and that was when their computers were doing whatever it is that computers do at the end of a business day. Both times the hotel was able to run it thru again without problems.

I think whether a bank will question abnormal charges varies from bank to bank. Challenging the charges does cost them, but I would think it would also lessen the amount they lose due to bad charges. Although I understand they don't lose that much to bad charges as they hold back some of what they owe ther merchant, and just offset any challenged charges against this amount. My bank has questioned charges that are abnormally large compared to my normal usage pattern, but as I advise them of when and where I will be travelling, they have not challenged any overseas charges consistent with my itinerary. We did go to Alaska recently and I forgot to notify them, but no charges were challenged. Perhaps they have profiled me as a traveler.

I have found that repeated loud cursing will defeat any of the automatic answering hurdles that I have run into, although one must apologize, of course, when one finally reaches a person.

Christina,

Re: &quot;I've also had the direct number to Capital One fraud dept. for a long time, and it isn't the one you gave. It is this one: 1-800-427-9428 &quot;

Yes, that was the first number they gave me, and the one that the Fraud Dept guy THOUGHT was his number. But when I called that number I did NOT get the Fraud Dept, but rather the same lame voice mail system I had on the initial service call -- except that this time when I ended up waiting on hold for Fraud, I was told the office was closed.

So when I called back on the other service number, the rep there told me that the 9428 number was not correct, and that I should call on that other number I posted above. When I called that number, I did get straight through to the Fraud section (althought there was still quite a wait on hold). Perhaps they have just changed the phone number and neglected to tell most of their staff!

Also, xyz, the first time I called I'm sure the woman was Indian. But today I think everyone I spoke to was in America. So I guess they must have reps in both places. The Indian woman apparently didn't know EITHER of the Fraud numbers, since she told me there wasn't any direct line.

0 does not work on their system, btw, to get to a live person.