No Need to Call Am Ex

[sapper1]

I have to show my DL with both Amex and M/C. I've said to retail places....why? They say to protect you and us. Right. I've said to them...that is simply not true....it's to protect you! They get so flustered...but it's annoying to me to have to produce my DL. Wonder if it's just a Calgary thing then?

The only time I have ever been asked for ID to use a credit card has been in grocery stores in the vicinity of Walt Disney World.

My husband was asked for a passport once at a gas station in Jacksonville.

[Sea King]

once they called my husband's office to verify a charge. We were out of the country but someone in the office told them it was OK.

 

that really gives me a "warm and trusting feeling"

 

someone in your husband's office tells credit card company it's "ok" to charge your card and credit card company accepts that as authorization":eek:

 

anything wrong with that picture:confused:

 

have a little problem with the scenario especially since my experience with Amex, for example, is that the questions or verification happen "right on the spot" not after the fact

[Sea King]

 

Getting old can be tough at times.

 

how about "most of the time":D

[serendipity1499]

Fair enough. You present a balanced case and I appreciate that. What I don't appreciate is people telling me to stop complaining. If the retailer told me this is for "our" protection I would appreciate that. I don't appreciate it when they make it look like they are taking care of me. I can take care of myself. I just want retailers to be honest instead of saying "this is all for you".

 

I bold-ed your last statement...

Agree with most others who have said they appreciate it when retailers ask for picture ID...That's wonderful that you can take care of yourself & check your charges on-line...However, the majority of my friends do not check their credit card purchases on-line..I check my purchases once a week when I'm home, but when I'm away I don't..We take longer cruises & it could be over a month before I go on-line to see the charges...We don't access our accounts from Internet Café's or the ship & don't have a laptop to take with us..

 

Retailers are being honest with you & are protecting you.. When a retailer has to eat the fraudulent charge, it results in an increase of prices to you, the consumer...

 

Well, guys, I've lived in Las Vegas since 1972, and since 1972 I have had to show ID in stores for CCs.

 

However, I have a Citibank CC that has my picture on it, as well as my signature on the front. I figure that is very inexpensive to do or they wouldn't do it, so I can't figure out why all CCs don't do it. So now people automatically ask for ID, and then say, "Never mind."

 

Our Chase Cards had picture ID on it for several years & we liked that..Then they stopped it:confused:...I'm wondering if they stopped it in order to get card holders to purchase Credit Card protection..

 

I'm semi-retired, but work a couple of days a week in a golf shop. Our policy: If the card is signed, check signature to see if it matches; If the card is NOT signed, always ask for ID; If on the back the person has "See ID" written, then check ID. We deal with fruad every month, and yes it's the retailer that loses in these cases.

 

Kel

Not only the retailer, but we all as consumer's lose too...If you had many fraudulent charges to cover, isn't it conceivable that your prices would have to be increased to cover those losses?

JMO...Betty

[mamaofami]

that really gives me a "warm and trusting feeling"

 

someone in your husband's office tells credit card company it's "ok" to charge your card and credit card company accepts that as authorization":eek:

 

anything wrong with that picture:confused:

 

have a little problem with the scenario especially since my experience with Amex, for example, is that the questions or verification happen "right on the spot" not after the fact

 

Actually, the people in DH's office knew we were in the Caribbean and all the charges were from the Caribbean so we were OK with that. It was several years ago, and that's why we always call to let the CC company know we will be out of town.

[mamaofami]

 

Cruises -- taking fewer -- I have had a ton of health issues this summer -- had to cancel a couple of cruises.

 

Don't see us cruising much any more.

 

Really sorry to hear that. I hope you're feeling better soon.

[many cruises]

We just returned from a cruise on the Maasdam & I called Am Ex (as I always do) to inform them of our travel plans. I was told that I didn't need to call them when traveling anymore. Apparently, this is their new policy.

[Sea King]

Actually, the people in DH's office knew we were in the Caribbean and all the charges were from the Caribbean so we were OK with that. It was several years ago, and that's why we always call to let the CC company know we will be out of town.

 

even more dangerous IMHO

 

what if someone charged a purchase to your account at a particular store in Barbados, for example, and you were also in Barbados that day:confused:

 

purpose of spot checks at the place of purchase is designed to make sure "you" are the authorized person using the card and presenting it for credit

 

impossible to verify identity of card holder on a phone call placed to your office while you're thousands of miles away on vacation .. unless of course you give the security code to the office staff:rolleyes:

[rjm1cc]

I would call for out of the country. One problem is that the cards do not always get flagged so that the employee at the cc co knows you are out of the country. My daughter was on an extended trip to Turkey and the cc co called (she uses our address as she moves arround a lot) as they wanted to verify a charge and were thinking of closing the account if it was not a valid charge. They would not talk to me as I was not on the card. Fortunatley I was able to get myself added to the card and verified the charge was ok. Point is be safe and not sorry. Also carry several cards. Sometimes they become defective or even lost or stolen.

[Benita]

We did not call Visa to let them know we were out of the country. We were medically evacuated in Jamaica and Visa would not let the charge to the hotel or hospital there go through and the hotel would not call Visa and we did not have a cell phone with us to call ourselves and you can not call collect from the hotel or hospital. Luckily, we had our AMEX card with us and they did not question anything. We now call everybody, including our bank (we use ATMs for local currency with our bank card). AMEX seems to be the only one not to care - our bank told us they would put a freeze on the ATM card after the first use, if they were not called.

[sail7seas]

I would call for out of the country. One problem is that the cards do not always get flagged so that the employee at the cc co knows you are out of the country. My daughter was on an extended trip to Turkey and the cc co called (she uses our address as she moves arround a lot) as they wanted to verify a charge and were thinking of closing the account if it was not a valid charge. They would not talk to me as I was not on the card. Fortunatley I was able to get myself added to the card and verified the charge was ok. Point is be safe and not sorry. Also carry several cards. Sometimes they become defective or even lost or stolen.

 

 

I'm confused. :confused:

 

If they would not permit you to verify, how did they permit you to add yourself to the card and then let you verify?

 

I must have missed something in the reading.

 

If you DD was away from home, trying to make a purchase that required cc company verify, how did you add yourself to the card?

[shotei]

I always thank the clerk for checking my identification when I use my credit card. It is happening more frequently lately and is up to about 50% of my purchases. My wife had her purse stolen last year. The thief was making a purchase using my wife's VISA card, when the clerk asked for photo identification which the person was unable to produce, the purchase was denied and a surveillance photo was turned over to the police. The police recognized the perp and arrested him shortly thereafter.

 

I gladly accept the "inconvenience" of presenting my identification in the interest of fighting crime and identity theft.

 

Marc

[jtl513]

The last call I made to Visa to tell them I was going out of the country went like this:

.

.

.

With such dynamite customer reps like this, I am more than happy to pull out my driver's license when asked.

 

I did that and told AmEx that we were traveling and the nice guy said - "Have a great trip. Anything else we can do for you?"

I prefer to send an email tagged as Read Receipt Requested (it's under Tools on the header bar). If I don't get that read receipt or an acknowledgement that I've notified them, then I send another. If I still get no answer, I try to not use that card on the trip if at all possible.

[peaches from georgia]

We've been told in the past by AMEX that Mexico is the country where they have the most problems and they do want to know if you are traveliing there. Not sure if that still holds, but I still would let them know if I was going outside the country. Rather be safe than sorry.

[sail7seas]

Actually.... :)

 

I started this thread because we did exactly that. We called to let them know we would be traveling.

 

My thread starting post stated Am Ex no longer requires a call.

 

Thus, the reason I started this thread.

 

Of course, by all means call. I would if I wanted to reassure myself what I have read here is accurate.

 

Others who did have posted here they got the same response.

 

Had they still wanted record of travel activity, DH would have given them the dates we would be out of the country during the same call but they did not want any of that info anymore.

 

When/if anyone else calls Am Ex, please post if you get the same response or a different one.

Thanks.

[HeatherInFlorida]

We've been travelling out of the country since the early '80's using my husbands Amex as well as my Visa and/or MC. We have never called Amex to inform them we're travelling and we have never had any difficulty using our cards in any country.

 

So they obviously didn't check every time and I guess we were just lucky we never ran into a problem.

 

The only time I've been told it's very important to call is if we are going to make a very large purchase (either here or overseas) because those purchases send up a red flag and while they can check it here in the states by calling the vendor, that's not always so easy overseas.

 

It's interesting that some people here are being told they don't need to call anymore, others have received odd responses when they do and others are still told it's a good idea to call. So maybe it's best everyone does what makes them comfortable and if they're told it's not necessary ... fine. No harm done.

 

As for someone asking for my I.D., good for them! It does protect me and it does protect them. I'm happy to provide it. I have absolutely no problem proving who I am and no one should be insulted when they're asked for a photo I.D to prove we are who they say we are. It's not personal; it's just smart.

 

If your card had been stolen, wouldn't you wish they'd ask the person trying to use your card to provide I.D.? I sure would.

[mamaofami]

I once had a department store card stolen. I didn't know it was missing till I got the bill. It was easy to prove it wasn't my purchases because the person spelled my last name incorrectly...a common mistake with my name.

I just renewed my driver's license and the people at the DMV decided my picture from 10 years ago was OK. Wish I still looked like that, but it's OK with me if they ask for I.D. anywhere I go.

I will continue to call my credit card companies and let them know when I'll be out of the country. If they tell me it's not necessary, that will be fine. At least I know I covered my bases and won't be surprised to be denied the chance to buy something in a foreign port. (Maybe that would be a good thing).

[Tucker in Texas]

I always call because when we cruise we only take a couple credit cards and ATM cards leaving the rest at home. We don't want to be cut off, particularly when we are out of the country and calling to verify a purchase as legitimate is not an option. If I ran a credit card company and all of the sudden there was a charge in Barcelona one day, Cartagena the next, etc. I'd get mighty suspicious. In fact, I did some power shopping one day here in Texas and hit four different towns (suburbs of Houston) within three hours that were within a 10 mile radius of my house. Before I got home, I had a call from Discover checking up on the purchases and none were a great amount of money.

 

When I have called, one of the cc companies have asked if I anticipated making any large purchases while gone like jewelry, cameras, etc. so they could make a note. I think that was MasterCard but not sure.

 

I had my card cloned once by someone out in California. This was before computers so I didn't know until I got the bill. They used it for one week because they didn't know my closing date and they knew it takes one week from closing to bill arriving in the mail. I had no problem with the unauthorized charges being removed. However, I did give my husband a hard time about sneaking off to California without me. That was bad enough but the $350 at Victoria's Secret buying gifts for his girlfriend really frosted my pumpkin (lol).

 

Where you can run into trouble, though, is if on a joint account and one is in one location (home) charging and the other is somewhere else charging. Husband learned quickly when traveling on business without me to use a different card than the one I was using at home.

 

I like the idea about e-mailing them--may do that the next time.

 

Tucker in Texas

[gatorbill62]

Having been a victim of Identity theft, I am more than glad to produce additional ID information at the point of sale to avoid another 3 year nightmare.

[twinkletoes4445]

30K....sounds like the credit card company should have been questioning charges that high. I don't know....maybe that is normal spending for you depending on if you have a business I guess. My credit card bills are high...but not that high:D. I don't want to have to produce ID each time......and I'm willing to assume the risk for that.....but I'm not given that as a choice. I guess that's all part of living in a large city and having people with nothing better to do with their time then pull credit card scams.

 

We use our cards for business a lot, so the amount didn't jump out at them, but I was glad the thief was stopped. I just really don't mind being asked for an ID. :)

[skankycat]

[When/if anyone else calls Am Ex, please post if you get the same response or a different one.]

 

I called AmEx to tell them that HAL was putting a hold on our card and that we'd be traveling. I was asked if we'd be making any large purchases, and thanked for calling.

 

Perhaps I just got a polite employee whose mother can be proud.

[sail7seas]

.....:D Or, like we find in so many customer rep situations - INCONSISTENCY.[

 

skankycat: Thanks for telling us what you were told by Am Ex.

 

I started this thread re: Am Ex so the comments regarding Visa and M/C can be expected to be different.

 

/B]

[GmaPajama]

We are among those who will continue to call Amex when we cruise. They always seem glad to be advised. We also call our Visa, since not everyone accepts Amex, and they too have expressed appreciation for our call.

 

We do not call when travels are entirely within the US. I can pretty much cover the whole country with Christmas shopping online, and have never been questioned. :)

[sassy73]

I totally agree Nutbunch We thank the clerks any and every time they ask for the DL My Dh and I bothe have written on the back of all our cards - See Picture ID The ones that irritate me are the clerks that look at the back, look at us and hand us back the card without asking

I call clerks on it when they DON'T ask to see my state issued ID.I dont drive so have that instead. Anyway, I think since I'm in a wheelchair they think I couldn't possibly be a theif, but who knows!! I expect to be treated equally, not any worse or any better,than anyone else, and this is just what people have to do in order to do commerce with a credit card.

[jcrandle]

We did a European river cruise in late June this year. I called master card and AMEX to inform them. MC took specific dates and countries and appeared to enter them in my record. Amex told me "Due to our sophisticated fraud monitoring and detection system it is not necessary to call and have us note countries and duration of travel."

 

I also call my banks to inform them that I would be making ATM withdrawals overseas and gave them dates and countries. The day after my first withdrawal I got a voicemail on my home phone asking that I call the 800 number for my ETrade ATM to discuss potentially fradulent usage. Never mind that 800 numbers are useless in Germany, and I had told them I would be there. I just emailed their customer service (wasn't going to waste my expensive cellphone minutes trying to call them) and told them to read their notes. That must have satisified them because I continued to make withdrawals with no problem.

 

As to checking ID, I ALWAYS thank the clerk for checking. I figure it is a lot easier to show my drivers license (or handgun carry permit) which is right there in my wallet next to the credit card rather than go thru the hassle of disputing a fraudulent charge with the CC company.

 

I even get asked for ID when I use my Capital One card, that has my photo on the front!