Do you contact your bank before you travel?

I'll be doing a road trip out west soon with a long stay in Vegas. Should I contact my bank before I leave?

 

I usually don’t unless I’m traveling internationally.

 

We stopped doing that about 10 years ago. Twice a year to Vegas. Handful of other trips. Cruises often. Did a round the world 5 years ago with multiple counties.

No problems at all.

FYI - My wife and I travel with at least 2 DIFFERENT credit card accounts each - usually more. Just in case.

 

When it's anything other than a quick business trip, I usually do. A few years ago, I had a dental emergency on a trip to Miami, and not only did my card get rejected, but it got locked and I had to spend a bunch of time with them on the phone sorting it out. Much easier to just click a couple buttons online and save myself the trouble.

 

We do….. to increase our daily ATM limit

 

Sure. I contact them for some cash as we get ready to head out…

 

Only internationally.

But for sure only use CREDIT when you travel. Too much hassle dealing with a stolen or lost or compromised debit card... I am amazed at the people I see only using debit.

 

And even internationally, notifying them doesn't always work. We checked into the Ritz Carlton Cancun years ago and none of our cards worked...like 4 or 5 credit cards that I know for sure at least two I put a travel notification on. Finally got one to work....but WTF. Embarrassing and annoying.

 

Generally no.

 

If you have your bank's app on your phone with location services turned on, then you usually don't need to inform them of travel (at least for the major national banks). Matching the activity with location services from your phone is more secure than a travel notification.

 

That’s a no for me BUT, I did notify my credit card company prior to my trip Florida this year. I go to Vegas 5-6 times a year and never have issues. April 2021 I went to St. Pete and my niece and I dove over and spent 2 days at Disney. I went to pay for something at Hollywood Studios and my card was declined. My niece said that Visa must have thought it was stolen since I never go East! I was able to call them and later charges were fine. Funny thing, even though I called prior to going back to Florida this year, I still had an issue....but month later no problems in Vegas. Lesson.....don’t go anywhere other than Vegas!

 

No, but I also have a bunch of cards on me

 

The only time I needed to contact my bank before a trip is when I needed to change my ATM withdraw limit. Although, I haven't had to do that for awhile now.

I only have one credit card (CitiBank) that still recommends adding a travel notification, but it can easily be done online. One time, I forgot to add the notification for my Nevada/California trip and my card was declined so I had to call in to verify that it was really me making the purchase. All of my other cards don't require setting travel notifications which is one less thing I need to do before a trip.

 

Not anymore. I haven't had issues at all in years.

 

i used to contact a couple credit card companies, especially when going overseas.

They would ask for the dates and the possible countries traveled within that period.

But on my latest trip, I tried, and they removed it all, saying we no longer need to notify them, likely for the reason @Basil mentioned.

 

I used to, always, but fraud protection works on pattern and trend recognition AI, and go figure, my bank no longer sees large purchases or ATM transactions in Vegas as an anomaly. You might be a degenerate if...

I still call them for travel alerts if I go somewhere else. For Vegas trips, that's just part of my baseline now I guess lol

 

I do. I’m typically on-line weekly checking balances etc. anyway, so it takes 2 minutes.

 

I did until they told me it was no longer necessary and I stopped. I recently made a big purchase in another state and as suspected, the card wasn't blocked.

I'll likely still do it for international travel, however, but not domestic.

 

My bank contacts me when I DON'T use the ATM in Vegas! Lol

 

Very good advice. I like that.