How to Travel With Credit Cards

Many people leave on a trip to get away from it all and not worry about normal every day life. However, that theory can come to a crashing halt if you lose your credit card. Traveling and all that goes along with it can really occupy your mind, leaving you more susceptible to forgetting or misplacing things, including your credit card and other important things.

Losing or having your credit card stolen from you can seem like a prime way to ruin a vacation but if you follow some simple tips to protect yourself and still enjoy your vacation, even if something should happen.

Make Copies/Take Notes

In the event your credit cards are lost or stolen, it will help for you to have a list of the credit cards you have with you, along with the contact numbers for the customer service department of the credit card company. You will also need to have your account information in order to report the fraud or lost credit card. Making copies of the front and back of your card can also be helpful. Cross out your name and expiration date of the card but leave the account numbers and the phone numbers still visible. Make certain that you keep this list of information on your person at all times and do not put it in your luggage. In the event, your luggage is lost or taken by another traveler accidentally or on purpose, you will not put yourself at risk for having your identity stolen. This is especially true when traveling abroad and the phone calls you have to make are oversees. The less hassles you have to deal with, the more you can enjoy your vacation time without excessive worry.

Alert Your Credit Card Company of Your Plan

While you are not required to report your whereabouts to your credit card companies, it may be a wise move when you plan to travel overseas. Some credit card companies will deactivate your card if they see that it has been used over a certain amount of times in one day, especially when being used in a foreign country. An automatic deactivation can really screw up a vacation so by alerting the companies that you will be on vacation abroad and that signs of increased usage will not be unusual during that specific period of time.

Bring Different Cards With You

If you are traveling as a family, make sure you bring different credit cards in separate names in the event one card is lost or stolen and needs to be closed. Since many married couples have joint accounts, it might complicate matters to have to close the account and leave neither party with access to credit. By having a second card separate from another, you would be able to use the second card until your lost or stolen card was replaced.

Pay Attention to the New Rules

If you are traveling abroad, make sure you understand how credit cards work in a different country. Many banks will charge what is called a conversion fee in order to change currencies. You can prepare by contacting your credit card issuer to find out what their exchange rate is and then make the decision about which is the best cards to bring along with you on the trip – the ones that will cost you the least amount of money in conversion fees. It is also important that you understand many automated teller machines overseas will not recognize a PIN number that is over four digits. If your current card has a PIN number with more than the 4 digits, you will need to speak to your bank or lender about changing your PIN number to a 4 digit code.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.