Chase Ultimate Rewards - Chase will not accept travel notification for customers traveling to Israel

I don't bank with Chase, so I have not run into this problem (Citi and Amex have never given me trouble in the past with this). A friend traveling to Israel next week was denied a travel notification to be placed on her account due to Israel being deemed "high risk" by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. Chase's response even went so far as to say that they will place notifications on the accounts of customers going to many of the "high risk" countries but will not do so for travelers to Israel.

Anybody have any insight as to whether this is a political or practical decision on the part of Chase?

From tripadvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293983-i2582-k5335024-o10-Chase_Bank_ATM_Card_Won_t_Work-Jerusalem.html) circa April 2012:

The ATM/ debit card DOES have a change. Chase, due to fraud, now considers Israel a high-risk country. For this reason they will not accept an Israel travel notification on this card. A travel notification, tells an issuing institution that you will be outside the US and they should expect transactions from your destination. By not accepting this notification there is a CHANCE that Chase WILL block the card in response to a purchase or ATM transaction. This would then require you to make a collect international call to Chase to have the card released. So, while the card CAN be used, there is a chance there could be difficulties and you should not travel with Chase being your ONLY source of cash!

Carry lots of shekels

Hmmm...I'm going to Jordan in 2 months and plan to use Chase cards as my primary cards while there. If Israel is deemed high-risk, I'm guessing most of the Middle East would be similar? (Or at least anything in the general area of Israel, Syria, and Iran...)

My first attempt to use a Chase card will be at a Marriott so hopefully if anything goes wrong getting it sorted will be a bit easier from there. (I'll use an Amex at the AMM rental car pickup but it doesn't sound like Amex is a problem...)

Hmm--wonder if other financial institutions have changed their policies similarly. I guess this isn't really PR material, though it's safer here than in any of the Israel or credit card forums.

We're moving this to our Credit Cards for better exposure while leaving a permanent re-direct here.

__________________

Cholula
OMNI Co-Moderator

From tripadvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293983-i2582-k5335024-o10-Chase_Bank_ATM_Card_Won_t_Work-Jerusalem.html) circa April 2012:

The ATM/ debit card DOES have a change. Chase, due to fraud, now considers Israel a high-risk country. For this reason they will not accept an Israel travel notification on this card. A travel notification, tells an issuing institution that you will be outside the US and they should expect transactions from your destination.
This sounds ridiculous in implementation. A travel notification tells an issuing instutation that you will be outside the US for a specific period of time and that they should expect transactions from your destination during that time. It does not tell them have to approve all those transcations, it just gives an extra data point to consider.

I don't understand why they wouldn't want to have that extra data point for a high-risk country. They already sometimes ignore travel notifications for low-risk countries, so a travel notificaiton is never a guaranatee. It's just an extra data point. So why in the world are they rejecting taking extra data points??? :confused:

This sounds ridiculous in implementation. A travel notification tells an issuing instutation that you will be outside the US for a specific period of time and that they should expect transactions from your destination during that time. It does not tell them have to approve all those transcations, it just gives an extra data point to consider.

I don't understand why they wouldn't want to have that extra data point for a high-risk country. They already sometimes ignore travel notifications for low-risk countries, so a travel notificaiton is never a guaranatee. It's just an extra data point. So why in the world are they rejecting taking extra data points??? :confused:

It concerns only debit or ATM transactions

We're moving this to our Credit Cards for better exposure while leaving a permanent re-direct here.

__________________

Cholula
OMNI Co-Moderator

Sounds good--thanks! Sorry for the inconvenience.

My first attempt to use a Chase card will be at a Marriott so hopefully if anything goes wrong getting it sorted will be a bit easier from there. (I'll use an Amex at the AMM rental car pickup but it doesn't sound like Amex is a problem...)

I've traveled several times to Israel and have used Amex there quite often, including to rent a car, without incident. However, it does look like this is a fairly new development for Chase, so I'm not sure if others have followed suit.

I just came back from Israel a month ago. Before I left, I went in personally to my Chase branch and had a banker put the travel advisory on both my ATM cards. I informed her I was traveling to Austria, Italy and Israel. She put the advisory on both my cards and never said anything about Israel. When I got to Israel (at the airport) I tried to pull money out of the ATM and was denied on one of my cards. My husband was denied on his card too, not Chase. So don't pull out at the airport because maybe that ATM wasn't working, not sure. Anyway, the entire time in Israel I could only pull out money on one of my cards and not the other. When I returned home there was a message on my machine to call Chase about possible fraud. I went to the bank and cleared it all up.
So, even with my advisory on both cards, somehow only one worked, so I suggest taking some cash along, just in case.
Good Luck!

I withdraw money all the time in Israel, and make cc charges all the time too. I set up notifications to Israel alot of times. You must of spoken to some clueless rep, try calling again.