What does your bank do when it locks your credit card?

[Happy Panther]

My bank doesn't call me or alert me in any way. This has happened twice both while trying to pay for food. Once I was overseas and they actually cancelled my card when I tried to pay for a pretty expensive client dinner. Yesterday was with family and it was locked out. Presumably they want you to call and confirm charges.

It would be great if you get a text or even confirm charges on your iPhone.

Oh and I am some sort of preferred member since I have 3 accounts(personal, small business and savings), a CC and a mortgage and routinely have way too much money sitting in a savings account earning nothing. That apparently gets you jack dick.

Do any of your banks handle this better?

And what is the best bank these days for my situation?

[pstall]

This sounds like there may have been a mild breach and they were short staffed and no good contigency plan.

Ask them about your point of sale purchase limits and about ifthey have alerts in place and just need to sign up for them.

[Hawk]

never had it happen, but I've heard of it happening lots. On the fence here...on one hand it's good that they lock it to prevent theft charges getting crazy and I can see them wanting to cover their ass a bit...on the other hand I'd think they should at least try to get in touch with you first.

[Happy Panther]

Ha guess what? I actually lost my card and the card I was trying to use on Sunday was an old card that was stuck in the back of my wallet. Found my card at the restaurant I went to Sat night.

I'm the idiot. BofA keeps my business for a while longer

[Hawk]

doh...hate when that happens!

a buddy of mine had a wedding in Mexico a couple years back and while he was there, his card was locked out. His card thought they were bring nice and locked the card when it saw these Mexican purchases. The hotel he was at wouldn't let him use their phone to call the card company until it was almost to the point where he was going to miss his ride back to the airport to come home!!!

[Anybodyhome]

I wouldn't let B of A sniff my nutsack.

I could not be happier with BB&T. They've called me on two separate occasions regarding online purchases of concert tickets that were way out of the area (The Who at MSG) (the Stones in Atlanta) we were making road trips to see. Both of those calls came within minutes of the transaction.

I have a "personal relationship banker" who I can actually walk in and speak with if need be. I always get my card cleared for overseas when I travel and they are always nothing short of terrific in their customer service.

[PhillyB]

anytime you travel (out of state even, but especially out of country) call your credit card company, or your bank/credit union if it's issued through them, and register your travel itinerary so there's no chance of charges flagging on the fraud radar. the first time i traveled out of the country i tried to get cash out of an ATM in the LAX international terminal before heading to australia and i couldn't get anything because the fraud alert went off. i had to scramble and call my credit union to verify my travel itinerary.

i've traveled to ~25 countries since then, registered my itinerary (including any possible unexpected deviations) and never run into any problems with charges.

[MadHatter]

anytime you travel (out of state even, but especially out of country) call your credit card company, or your bank/credit union if it's issued through them, and register your travel itinerary so there's no chance of charges flagging on the fraud radar. the first time i traveled out of the country i tried to get cash out of an ATM in the LAX international terminal before heading to australia and i couldn't get anything because the fraud alert went off. i had to scramble and call my credit union to verify my travel itinerary.

i've traveled to ~25 countries since then, registered my itinerary (including any possible unexpected deviations) and never run into any problems with charges.

Excellent advice.

[CRA]

As a SC resident, anyone I travel further than NC, GA, TN....I call my cc company and tell them where I will be traveling. I would hate to be out of town and have my poo locked.

BBT is pretty good as the other poster said....they have called before when I forgot.

[Mother Grabber]

I've had issues with both a Wells Fargo cc and my debit card with Chase (twice). In both cases, the card was skimmed and fradulent charges were attempted.

Wells blocked the card and called me. I confirmed that I did not indeed buy several prepaid phone cards in Mexico. They removed the transactions and reissued.

Chase blocked the card and access to my account online. I had to call them to find out what was up. First the Chase card was skimmed when I was visiting in Chapel Hill (this is how I get treated when coming back to visit), and the other was multiple attempts to log into my account.

I was happy in both cases that they blocked the card when the flags went up, but it was also a much better user expereince for Wells to call me. They were proactive and it was fixed within hours. Chase was passive, and I didn't know what was going on for several days.