Fraud Alerts on Your CC

[JDAZ11]

So how often do you get fraud alerts on your credit cards? I feel like USAA CONSTANTLY (well I guess once ever 4 months) puts a hold on our card for suspected fraud.

I mean, ok fine, we clearly don't want fraudulent charges, but it happens like every time we travel. This time we weren't traveling , and a bar we were at last night showed up as being an out of state charge (no idea why, they use cell phones to check you out, not sure if that had something to do with it), but it happens on every vacation.

Is this normal? Are thy crazy? Do I use the card too much? (That's a joke, but my DH tried to argue it was just because we spend too much money - which isn't even close to true).

Anyway, it's so annoying. Does this happen to everyone else?

[ladymoreta]

That's weird. I called my CC company before we went out of state once years ago, and they said I only needed to tell them if I was going out of the country. I think that one was Chase.

[Sheherezade]

We have USAA and I don't think we have that kind of trouble. We don't use the credit card much, but we do use the debit/credit. We tell them whenever we leave town. I think we've had two or three fraud alerts in the last decade. The last one was recent when my DH was in Trinidad. They called the home phone for a computerized verification that someone was in Trinidad and I pressed yes, so they processed it. Not sure how that would work if no one was home!


Angie

[medpedspouse]

I use my USAA CC all the time and don't have those issues. However, I do call them and tell them about our travel plans...maybe that helps?? Having said that USAA has frozen our account for fraudulent activity while we were overseas and it sucked big time. So, now I always travel with two debit and two credit cards. I created a second checking account and keep just a minimal amount for the debit card I have on me.

[JDAZ11]

Ohhhh ok. So I've never called and told them about travel plans. Maybe that's the problem? We've never had this issue with any the card. They have even done it when our plane tickets were purchased on the card, which kind of annoys us. I guess we often end up up with free accommodations, so perhaps the fact that there isn't a local hotel charge sets them off?

Who knows, but it's literally an every 3-ish month thing for us.

[Sheherezade]

They have a place you can do it online. Just search "vacation notice" or "travel" on their search bar.


Angie

[JDAZ11]

They have a place you can do it online. Just search "vacation notice" or "travel" on their search bar.


Angie

Ahhh amazing! I never noticed. So glad I asked! Thanks!

[JDAZ11]

Ok so it's travel notifications. Amazing. Who knew! I swear I've had cards since I was like 14 (not that I paid the bill then), and I had NO IDEA you were supposed to do that! Thank you!

[medpedspouse]

Here's the other cool thing with USAA while traveling. We rented a car and got a rock chip. They just had us take a picture of our rental agreement and upload it to their site and they said they would take care of the rest. We also uploaded a picture of the chip next to a dime in case the Budget decided to tell them it was bigger than it was. Easy peasy.

[SoonerTexan]

We've never had it happen with Chase. Even when DH was traveling all over for interviews. Yet, they have caught ever single fraudulent charge we've had (3-4)

[ladymoreta]

We've never had it happen with Chase. Even when DH was traveling all over for interviews. Yet, they have caught ever single fraudulent charge we've had (3-4)

I've had one fraudulent charge, and they didn't catch it, but it was really, really simple to reverse it. I love Chase!

[metroguy]

i normally call if i travel far away or out of country. i think they call a few times about online charges my wife likes to make. otherwise, it's rare for them to catch anything. also, i suggest you get several credit cards. i got at least 3 but mostly for various free promos they were giving out.

[Pollyanna]

Used to happen to my mom all the time with one of her cards until she called them and told them to stop. Not an USAA card, don't remember which one.

[JDAZ11]

Also interesting. I wonder if we can just ask them to stop. This time at least they called us (always DH, even though we have asked that they contact me first) before we tried to use it. Usually it gets declined, then we get a text about how they suspect fraudulent activity. It's beyond annoying.

[JDAZ11]

i normally call if i travel far away or out of country. i think they call a few times about online charges my wife likes to make. otherwise, it's rare for them to catch anything. also, i suggest you get several credit cards. i got at least 3 but mostly for various free promos they were giving out.

We do have several credit cards. This is just the only one we really use (unless it's for plane tickets, or some other specific thing that gives us better miles/free checked bags etc) as long as they take Amex.

But we basically just use this, and then our usaa debit/master card (which is sometimes connected to the account hold). I usually don't even carry any other cards.... It's just so easy for us to just pay the one bill every month, and so clear how much we've spent etc (I know it's easy to just connect other cards to our usaa accounts page, but it just seems like a better idea to not have random charges on a bunch of different cards).