Visa/Mastercard abroad

Jul 21, 2020 17 Comments

Anytime I try to use my US credit cards abroad for something other than groceries, my card gets declined.

It happens at Toll booths, at Gas stations. I am trying to buy a car to my parents, and I couldn’t even pay the deposit with my Chase card.

Because of that I have to keep a foreign bank account and spend days waiting for money to travel around.

These cards are branded as « international » and allegedly give you access to the « whole visa/mastercard network in the world », but in reality it just doesn’t.

Anybody here who works at Visa or MasterCard knows why that is? I mean it’s obviously to combat fraud, but letting sellers block all foreign cards completely defeats the purpose of these networks.

I wonder if UnionPay works the same...

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TOP 17 Comments
  • New
    tomassino

    New

    tomassino
    It’s a fraud protection measure. You need to call the credit card company and let them know what dates you’ll be traveling abroad and where so they don’t block a weird transaction in Japan. You can set up the international dates online as well.
    Jul 21, 2020 1
  • HBO
    It’s TV

    Go to company page HBO

    BIO
    Username is an insult for Jonah Ryan (Veep!) that didn’t make it to air.
    It’s TV
    MasterCard from capital one is pretty broadly accepted without international fees.

    European POS terminals have trouble accepting US cards without chip and pin (we have chip without pin). Touchless is taking off in Asia but no longer built into most US cards.

    Most of the world only accepts card + signature for foreign (US) tourists at this point. Most countries do not work off of signature-based terminals.
    Jul 21, 2020 3
    • Citibank / Product
      OutofMem

      Go to company page Citibank Product

      OutofMem
      How is the transaction taking place? Insert the card and it is declined?
      Jul 21, 2020
    • OP
      Yes. Or online transaction, that takes you to Verified by Visa and then you get a message that it is declined.
      Pretty sure it’s payment processors here blocking all foreign banks. I’m just surprised that Visa/MasterCard allow them to do that.
      Jul 21, 2020
  • I really doubt it’s the merchants blocking these transactions. I’ve had some trouble with online txns in France when verified by visa or MasterCard secure code is invoked. It’s likely due to the US banks inability to process these types of txns, which are ubiquitous across Europe but very rare in the US. I’ve never had issues with in-person txns in Europe or outside the US (like at a gas station) so long as you have a credit card with a PIN option. Without this many merchants will decline due to lack of chip + PIN entry. My Barclaycard Arrival+ Mastercard comes with the PIN feature auto enabled and I’ve had no issues using it in Europe. As someone else mentioned you should also always inform your bank you will be traveling so they loosen their security measures on your account when seeing a foreign txn come through.
    Aug 1, 2020 2
    • One more tidbit- when a merchant uses verified by visa or MasterCard secure code and the bank approves the txn the liability for fraud moves to the bank vs the merchant. Many banks do not want to take the added risk of being liable if the cardholder disputes the txn, and because their systems already see this as riskier since it’s international, will decline.
      Aug 1, 2020
    • OP
      Thanks for the details
      Aug 1, 2020
  • So US banking is still embarrassing. Revolut is now in US. Get yourself a free Revolut account and avoid all this hassle
    Jul 21, 2020 3
    • OP
      But I’ll give to Revolut that they make it easy to send money from the US to an IBAN.
      Jul 21, 2020
    • Top up limit is $1-3k daily for new users. Considering shitty US banking is like 3 days to transfer money that's $3-9k. For most people that's fine for a holiday especially as each new day on the holiday you could just add another $1-3k to the account

      After you've used it for a while the limit will increase also

      The only issue I've noticed with Revolut card is contactless sometimes not working but inserting the card has worked ok. I use a superior option now but it's only available to people in the UK for now
      Jul 21, 2020
  • Never had issues using my chase sapphire card. I have used my card everywhere and for online purchases in India. I prefer using my sapphire as chase does not charge an international service fee..
    Jul 21, 2020 1
    • OP
      Did more research and it seems that my country is specifically a problem for foreign cards. It’s France. Which is surprising because they claim to be the first tourist destination in the world.
      Jul 21, 2020