Using Credit Cards when you Travel
First things first: before you travel, call the bank that issued your credit cards! That’s rule number one and will make your trip so much easier. If you are not a frequent traveler, your bank knows your travel history and may believe the foreign charges are fake. If so, they will block the card and deny the charges. Also, some banks will not allow their credit cards to be used in countries where fraud is a known problem. It’s best to know if your bank has these restrictions in place before you travel. Example, you can’t use a credit card in Cuba. One of our credit cards was issued by our credit union. When we notified our credit union we were traveling to Southeast Asia, we were told any charges in China, Viet Nam, and Cambodia would be denied. While on the trip, we attempted to use this card in China and the charge was denied -- I wanted to “test” their system. Fortunately, we had other credit cards with us on ou...