99TravelSafe.com
35 – Ensuring Credit Card Safety During Travel
The Website For The Smart and Savvy Traveler
ANYTIME you travel you should make photocopies of all of your credit cards, airline tickets and documents, both front and back. You should leave these photocopies with friends or relatives back home.
When you are leaving make sure your card is not near its credit limit, as you could get arrested abroad if you try to cross your credit limit.
1-800 helpline numbers do not work from abroad, make sure you have a number to your credit card company that works from outside the country.
Treat your credit card number as if it were a precious secret.
Only tell it to those who really need to know.
There is absolutely no reason to carry every single credit card you own around with you.
Some banks and credit unions cut off credit cards that are used 6 or more times in one day, so carry more than one card, if possible.
If you travel with someone, especially a husband or wife, make sure you travel with individual credit cards in separate names. If one was lost, you could survive on the other credit card for a few days until the other is replaced.
Never keep photocopies of credit cards in your luggage or an open space. Cut off the expiry dates and names from the copies.
While your liability in stolen credit card cases is limited to $50/card in most cases, this can quickly add up if multiple cards are involved.
When traveling abroad and using a credit card, watch out for the conversion fee that many banks charge to convert charges in foreign currencies to dollars.
Many foreign ATMs only accept four-digit PIN numbers. If your PIN is longer, check with your financial institution about changing it before you leave the country. Sometimes it is as simple as going to your own bank's ATM and changing it yourself.
Each month when your credit card statement comes in, do not automatically assume everything on it is accurate. Read every line item on your credit card statement and make sure each and every charge is legitimate.
As you venture on your travels abroad, ensure your local bank knows of your travel plans
This way, it will NOT decline card transactions that may otherwise seem suspicious.
Do Sign up for credit card account alerts. When you do this, you will get text, email or push notifications whenever your card is used.
Then, if your card is somehow compromised and someone uses it for an unauthorized transaction, you wil know about it in time to take action.
Travelers on vacation can be an easy target for scammers;
One popular scam is credit card skimming. This is common at gas stations and at ATMs, as these places can be set up to capture your card information and enable scammers to use it for fraudulent transactions.
To protect yourself:
Prevent people nearby from seeing your personal identification number (PIN) when you enter it at the ATM.
Don’t give your passport or credit cards as a security deposit to tour operators or anyone else.
Don’t keep all of your cash in one place. Split it between your wallet, money belt, or hidden pockets to avoid losing everything to one mishap.
Check payment terminals and ATMs for skimming devices before using them.