Being I am doing more foreign travel I have been very persistent in letting Bank of America my primary Visa card company know that I will be traveling overseas.
But for two trips in a row when I show up at the Car Rental place or try and check into a hotel my card has been denied. I have plenty of credit and no mater what I do I cannot get the charges approved. I even went through the embarrassing situation of calling them collect and waiting well over a half hour for them to deal with the approval.
Here is the short version for some reason using a Bank Of America Visa card in Japan is impossible. While I have an American Express card and other payment options I track all of my business expenses on this particular card and to no avail it is worthless in Japan.
I can not even imagine being the customer that only has one credit card and being stuck not being able to make a payment. My advice to all travelers do not count on or even trust Bank of America Visa with anything.
Having been a customer since 1987 I will be canceling all my banking accounts with them when I get home. This included Personal Checking, Savings, Business Checking and all associated credit cards. If they cannot take care of their customers I will bank someplace that can..
BTW my American Express card has never failed me ever!
I’ve used my Bank of America Visa in UK, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines without any issues.
If you call the number on the back of your card and tell them which countries you’ll be visiting (not simply I’m going overseas) you shouldn’t have any problems.
In fact, other banks I bank with are much worse. Worse may not be the word, but their security denies *ANY* charge out of the ordinary. American Express is know for being a Travel card, so no surprise there.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Mine works without issue.