Credit card travel notices provide your card issuer with notice ahead of your travel, to help ensure purchases made while away aren’t flagged as suspicious and declined, potentially disrupting your trip and potentially costing extra in fees and charges. They’re easy to send, can help minimize disruption and can save valuable travel time!
Visa allows cardholders to report their travel plans directly, so the itinerary details are automatically included in any authorization message sent when transacting, making transactions more likely to be approved.
How to set a travel notice
Though not necessary, notifying your credit card company when traveling could save your card from being flagged as fraudulent when making purchases that don’t align with its usual spending patterns. No one wants their trip to start off with having to call their credit card company first – taking only minutes or so now could save hours of stress (and potentially fees!) later.
Card issuers generally allow their customers to easily create travel notices via their websites or apps; some require you to reach out directly to customer service for this task; for instance, Chase doesn’t provide an explicit option in its online account for setting travel alerts but instead suggests calling or emailing customer service in order to set one up. Either way, credit card travel alerts should be easy and straightforward processes.
Online
Without filing a travel notice, your credit card company won’t know you will be making charges at different locations and this could cause them to flag them as suspicious and decline them. To prevent this from happening, log into your account and share your travel plans with them.
Log into your bank account and visit Tools/My Travel to set a travel notice online. When creating the travel notice, provide details regarding travel destination, dates and contact info for the notice to take effect.
Set your travel notice by phone or at a branch. Which method best meets your needs depends on your preferences and convenience.
Over the phone
If you don’t inform your card issuer of your travel plans, you may encounter problems when making purchases. The company could mistakenly believe your charges to be suspicious and decline them altogether – hence why it is so essential to give advance notice before leaving home.
Stephen calls his issuer’s call center and informs a customer service representative of his trip to Thailand. The representative then inputs this information into his account with Visa.
Now, when he makes purchases in Thailand, his issuer knows they’re part of his travel itinerary and can approve it with confidence. Card issuers can use TNS API to incorporate cardholder travel itineraries into authorization messages to avoid mistaken declines while keeping their travelling cardholders happy.
In person
At BECU branches, you have the opportunity to arrange your travel notice directly with one of their representatives and receive any necessary assistance or answer any questions about your trip. Plus, ask about any discounts or rewards for which your journey may qualify!
Though not mandatory, notifying your card issuer of your travel plans is recommended as this could prevent charges you make while away being considered suspicious and declined by them.
Setting a travel notice will alert your card issuer of your location and help them approve transactions with confidence, potentially decreasing calls to their call centers due to mistaken declined transactions. Impesa’s Layla provides several Visa APIs which enable cardholders to easily set travel notifications through mobile banking apps as well as online.
