I work at a bank and am in charge of our debit/ATM cards, and we recently had a problem with a customer who went to Italy and couldn't use his ATM card. After contacting our card provider, I learned that ATMs in Europe don't generally allow access to a savings account (which he was trying to use). Here, you get a choice of where to withdraw your funds, but over there, the ATM automatically assumes it's checking. I don't know how many of you plan to travel, but before you leave, make sure you have alternative cash options (traveller's cheques, money, credit card), and if you do plan to use your ATM or debit card, make sure it's tied to a checking account.

Another caveat: You should contact your credit card provider and let them know you are planning to travel out of the country, since any unusual activity (like leaving the country) might come up as a red flag. This same customer told me that four people in his tour group were unable to use their credit cards because of that reason.

Just FYI!

By Eve on Thursday, April 7, 2005 - 05:09 pm:

I believe you have to change your pin# to a 3 digit #, because a 4 digit won't work. I think you also can't have it end in zero.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, April 7, 2005 - 09:33 pm:

Absolutely contact your credit card company! We accidentally let our cc company know about our trip to Italy a couple of years ago and they said it was a good thing or they likely would have canceled our card when we couldn't be reached for confirmation.

Also, when my dad had open heart surgery a few years ago an hour from my home, I was driving back and forth for several days, making long distance calls, and of course gas with my cc. They phoned my home to ask about it because it was considered suspicious activity. Thankfully dh was here to tell them about my current situation or they might have put a stop on the card.

By Janet on Thursday, April 7, 2005 - 10:43 pm:

Eve, all I know is what our service provider told me. Perhaps it's different for different services. Our customer was able to use his four-digit PIN number, but it wouldn't allow him to access his account, as it wasn't a checking account. I just thought this was interesting, and maybe valuable info for some of you.