> I definitely have Bank of America notify me when I do something out of the ordinary.
-And such routines are incredibly efficient; while commissioning one of our deliveries (heavy engineering equipment) in Namibia a few years ago, I found that the local power electronics distributor hadn't heard of my employer, and were (reasonably so) reluctant to hand over parts for $13,000 or so and send an invoice to Norway.
VISA to the rescue, and as we hauled the parts into the car to bring them down to the dock, my phone rings - VISA on the line, asking if I had happened to use my credit card in Namibia a few minutes ago, definitely expecting a 'No!!!!'.
-'Sure, we're loading the supplies into the car now, how come?'
Deep sigh and a chuckle at the other end. -'I guess it had to happen some day. You have a nice day, then.'
Lucky you. You got a phone call before just declining it! /sarcasm
Story time:
I was in London, on a multi-week vacation when my CapitalOne card got declined while trying to pay for dinner on the 3rd night using Apple Pay (for the contactless feature).
It wasn't an expensive meal.
There was no warning, no text-message, no phone call. I opened the CapitalOne app and it said my account is now restricted. I proceeded to call CapitalOne, and sit on hold, then get transfered a couple of times until there was a person who could flip the switch.
I paid for dinner, and my wife and I started back to our hotel. Half-way there, we stopped off at a Boots Chemist, and picked up some allergy medicine. Card declined again. I knew it was going to take 30+ minutes to deal with it, so I paid cash and we left.
When we got to the hotel, I had to call back, deal with the same multiple transfers to the person who could flip the switch. Then we would get 1 transaction through before it would get declined again. I eventually got a direct line to the guy who could flip the switch, and after the 5th time of me calling him, we spent a few hours investigating.
I have used this card in the UK for years on vacation. But increasingly merchants dislike the lack of pin, and needing a signature, so to be a good tourist, I decided to use it with Apple Pay, and that was apparently the combination that was killing my account.
The Apple Pay + UK card reader combination was apparently blanking out the CVV code for whatever reason, and while Capital One would allow a single transaction to fail that check, they would then suspend the account until a person verified the transaction was legit. My biggest gripe about this though was they did not even inform me each time it happened. So for the remainder of the trip I had to either dip the chip, and sign a receipt or pay a FX fee.
EDIT: Now that I'm thinking on it more, I think the reason the CVV was blank was because a CVV doesn't get used when your card is present. So I'm back to thinking this was a CaptialOne issue. They were seeing the transaction as a card-not-present transaction, instead of as a contactless transaction, at the time, I don't think they had contactless cards, so that might have not been a scenario they had accounted for.
We have all these stories of how our feudal lords have been nice and helpful
But why not get the notifications yourself on your own devices?
You can set up your own policies for approving transactions or whatever. I understand that the chargebacks can be done up to 60 days, which means “seller beware” in the current financial system as opposed to “buyer beware” in the crypto one. But in the crypto one, you are in charge of your keys. And the arguments made in favor of banks could have just as easily been made for printing presses or telephone switchboard operators!
-I can, to some extent, do this in my phone banking app; I can update region/type of transaction/maximum amount; my bank even lets me have whitelists ('No card-not-present transactions outside EU, except renewal of magazine subscription such-and-such from the US', for instance).
Changes are immediate.
However, I have the impression that the VISA/MC/AMEX fraud detection override my preference.
USAA will just decline first and ask questions later. (I'm not saying this is a good thing; it sucks as a customer.)
I tried to order from a German e-retailer with my USAA card. First time, rejected; I got a text asking if it was me. I replied "YES". Second time, rejected again, got another text... I had to use another (Chase?) card eventually. Still got a text, but this one was prompt and I was able to respond before the transaction was rejected.
These are all automated; no CS rep is sending these texts (or rejections) by hand.
-And such routines are incredibly efficient; while commissioning one of our deliveries (heavy engineering equipment) in Namibia a few years ago, I found that the local power electronics distributor hadn't heard of my employer, and were (reasonably so) reluctant to hand over parts for $13,000 or so and send an invoice to Norway.
VISA to the rescue, and as we hauled the parts into the car to bring them down to the dock, my phone rings - VISA on the line, asking if I had happened to use my credit card in Namibia a few minutes ago, definitely expecting a 'No!!!!'.
-'Sure, we're loading the supplies into the car now, how come?'
Deep sigh and a chuckle at the other end. -'I guess it had to happen some day. You have a nice day, then.'