Hello everybody On the 29th of June I am going to the USA and I will carry my credit card (MasterCard) but I have heard that my card could not be enabled for US area. I am going to ask my bank as soon as possible, but I have also heard that in the USA they only use the magnetic band (while in Europe we mainly use the microchip). The band of my card is silver and not black as I imagined... Does it mean anything? And, finally, I have been told that sometimes transitions are rejected (who knows why!) and they advise me to carry another credit card, just to be sure... Thank you! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
the color of the mag strip matters not .. and from what ive heard european cards work just fine apparently it is the first 4 digits of the CC # that matters
i mean the magnetic strip on the back, it doesn't matter if its black or silver or whatever. i have a card in my possession right now that has a silver strip
Yeah, I understand that! I was talking about you saying that the first 4 digits matter! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
the first digit is called the system #, most cards break the number into 4 groups of 4, american express is one that comes to mind that is an exception Master card always starts with 5, Visa 4 .. thats what i meant i didn't word it that well of course all of the numbers matter, as well as the numbers on the back too all this shit is encoded in the magnetic strip, except the PIN in debit cards as for your question, i believe it should work if it has the magnetic strip, very few stores in the USA have merchant terminals that accept "chip" cards but it really depends on the merchant account of the bussines as to whether they can accept a certain card. otherwise the numbers are really what are used to make a charge to the card which is why credit cards can be used over the phone etc w/o actually being swiped. the most common terminal in the U.S is the verifone merchant terminal w/ a magnetic strip reader. smart cards never caught on here
It seems that certain Italian banks disable the stripe to their credit cards because here the chip is most used and it is also securer. That's why I think I need to ask my bank if they have to enable it. Anyway I will carry some cash... After all I have already paid the hotels... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hahahah a couple of good reasons to visit Canada! I'll keep it in mind! Anyway my holiday went great! They blocked our cards after some very expensive purchases in the same day (you know, we went to the Apple Store in the 5th Avenue...). At LaGuardia airport we were in panic because we had no more cash and credit cards were blocked. My wife was really pissed off because we had used the credit cards for buying the iPhones. Then he calmed down when we could withdraw some cash with a third prepaid credit card. A lifeline! Eventually we called our bank and they solved the problem. Just an hour of real fear... I think I've lost ten years of my life... Then everything went well Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
it sucks when banks block cards, sometimes for trivial purchases and then its a real pain the ass to deal with but I feel like if someone really was to make fraudulent purchases using my bank card numbers that the bank wouldn't catch it, and i'd be screwed.
mine phones me almost instantly happens a lot if im ordering something from overseas..place order and expect a call to confirm its me using the card
if you are traveling far from home, especially internationally, you can contact your credit card company to let them know. this can prevent them from blocking your card due to suspicious activity.
Yeah... But honestly I thought that they would have called me! Next time I'll contact them, for sure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They won't call you, but they SHOULD. As annoying as it is, it's a good thing that banks do this cuz it would suck to be a victim of fraud. And in the case of fraud, the bank is gonna get their money back no matter what .. so someone is gonna end up losing some money, it's either gonna be you, or the merchant.
Don't know, but someone once told me that when he was in the USA, after some purchases, the bank called him to be sure that he was there. Maybe it depends on the bank; I think that the circuit (Mastercard or Visa or whatever) should be in contact with the customers' banks so they could communicate them the presumed anomaly. Then the bank should contact the customer to clarify. This is how I think it should work.
