Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR

While all the travel books say to notify your credit card issuer if you are doing some international travel, and I really don't have any problems with that, it really doesn't seem to make any difference as noted above. The computer will be on the look out for what it considers suspicious charges. I have switched over to the FIA card for my international travel after years of using the AA advantage cards (I tried to rationalize it to myself that I was paying 3% to earn miles I wouldn't get with other cards) but the allure of 2% back on everything (sure it's not all that much but it's better than nothing) meant in my warped mind I was getting a 5% bonus for my international travel (or in other words, the AA miles were costing me 5% of whatever I purchased) but I digress. Like I said sometimes I notify them, sometimes I don't. I just got back from 5 weeks in Europe charging up a storm (well I believe in charging everything everywhere no matter how large or small and keeing my use of cash to the barest minimum) and not one charge was rejected. I think this notify your bank is meaningless for the most part but again I'm not saying not to do it.