Notify your credit card co. before you pay online for visa

Here's a heads up from what happened to me:

Make sure you call your credit card company just before you get online and pay for the Visa to alert them that YOU are paying for this expensive item online. My very proficient anti theft Visa card blocked my Priority payment after the HUGE visa payment was made. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't pay for it....then they phoned me and I told them it was ME making the payment/purchase.

God as if it wasn't stressful enough that day!! (My printer was also giving me trouble just before hand!! Thank God it's behind me. I go on Thursday for my biometrics, yay!

Good point....I'll have to remember that in a few months.

Good advice, and for any 'big' online purchase. When grocery shopping back in February, my debit card was declined. I KNEW there was more than enough in the bank. So I went to the ATM to check, and it said to contact the bank because it had been frozen. The lady at the bank clicked a few buttons, found out what was going on, and gave me an 800 number to call. It was all sorted within minutes, but the frustration and embarrassment at the shop was more than I wanted.

A quick call beforehand is always a good idea.

This is just one of the "joys" of living in the UK. They will also block your card if you try to use it outside the UK without prior notice. (Not very helpful when you are already abroad.)

This is just one of the "joys" of living in the UK. They will also block your card if you try to use it outside the UK without prior notice. (Not very helpful when you are already abroad.)

It's not just the UK.

My US bank recently told me to inform them that I was in the UK and how long I was visiting for so that my US card wouldn't be blocked if I tried to use it. I didn't try to explain that I was British and that I lived in the UK and had been using the card occasionally for the last 6 years with no issues at all :S.

Also, I recently tried to make a payment of several hundred dollars using my US bank card and the payment was declined by the US company (for some unknown reason), but the bank had already put a hold on it so I couldn't get it released back into the account to pay by another method... in the end I had to pay with my UK bank card and it took several days of contacting my US bank by online chat from the UK, emailing the company to try to explain the situation and having to get the US company send a fax to my bank in order for the money to be made accessible to me again :S.

I've never had any trouble with my UK bank accounts, but I cannot figure out US banking at all - I've had so many issues with my US bank account that I've been tempted just to close the account completely so I don't have to deal with it .

I've never had any trouble with my UK bank accounts, but I cannot figure out US banking at all - I've had so many issues with my US bank account that I've been tempted just to close the account completely so I don't have to deal with it .

You sound like me but reverse the countries!  I have been spoiled by my local credit union.  I've known them so long that I don't even have to show ID or anything because all the tellers know me.  I couldn't wrap my head around the complications of cashing a check(cheque) in the UK.  My university advanced my loan to tide me over before I could open a UK bank account.... via check.  I couldn't even deposit it into someone else's account (as I could in the US).  By the time the check finally cleared two weeks later, my full loan had come through.  Fun times!

I always make sure to tell my bank when I am going out of the country, just in case I need to use my Visa for any emergency purchases.  You don't want to be blocked when, say, an Icelandic volcano erupts stranding you in Switerland and you need to buy last-minute train tickets to Berlin.   

This is just one of the "joys" of living in the UK. They will also block your card if you try to use it outside the UK without prior notice. (Not very helpful when you are already abroad.)

My experience was in the US with my US bank card.