Before an international trip, ask each card’s issuer to set up a PIN that works for purchases, since some ticket kiosks and unattended gas pumps abroad require one. Then pack a second card on a different network and carry it separately, so you can still pay if one card is lost or blocked for suspected fraud.
When a U.S. card fails abroad, it’s usually at a machine. A train ticket kiosk, a toll booth, or a gas pump after the station closes has no cashier to help when it rejects your card.
Some of those machines want the chip inserted and a PIN typed in. Most U.S. credit cards are set up for a signature instead, so yours may have no PIN, or only one that works for cash advances at an ATM.
Before you leave, get your cards ready:
- Ask each issuer whether its card can have a PIN for purchases, and set one up if it can. Start a few weeks ahead, since a mailed PIN can take up to two weeks.
- Add your cards to your phone’s wallet app so you can pay with a tap. Kiosks that reject an inserted U.S. card often accept a tap.
- Bring at least one Visa or Mastercard. Some merchants abroad take those two but not American Express or Discover.
- Pack a backup card on a different network, ideally from a different issuer, so a fraud block at one issuer leaves the other card working. Keep it somewhere other than your wallet.
- Turn on purchase alerts in each card’s app and update your phone number, so you can answer a fraud check right away.
- Tell the issuer your trip dates only if it still offers a travel notice. Many big issuers say they no longer need one.
- Bring a debit card from a bank that doesn’t charge foreign ATM fees or refunds them, since some places still want cash.
- Find each issuer’s number for calls from outside the U.S. and save it in your phone. Some issuers accept collect calls on that number.
If a card is declined, pay with the backup. If a cashier can’t process the first card either, check its app or call that overseas number, since a fraud block is the likely cause and confirming the charge usually clears it. If a card goes missing, lock it in the app before you call.
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