(Mods: unsure if the CC forum is best for this topic. If not, mea culpa -- feel free to move.)

My wife and I are looking for the best retail bank for frequent international travel after a series of aggravating issues with Chase. In the past six months, we've had our ATM card shut down approximately 4x. Each of these instances has required a 40 minute call -- 10 minutes on hold, 10 minutes talking with a clueless inbound call center rep, 10 minutes on hold for a fraud prevention specialist, 10 minutes with a surly "expert" who says "Find an ATM and see if it works now."

The last call was the worst, by far. Relatively unexpected trip to Victoria; the call with Chase burned through the long cab ride from YYJ, hotel-check in, and the first 15 minutes in the room -- at 1am.

The random shutoffs bug me the most. For each time that we've had an issue, we've had a time when our card has worked perfectly fine.

I'll confess that I'm not great about calling to inform Chase that I'll be traveling -- especially because their phone system is a huge pain in the ..., but also because it's not perfect -- we've diligently called to inform them of our travels, only to be stranded at an ATM in a foreign country, preparing to waste an hour of vacation seething-mad on the phone.

So with that, three questions:

1) Does the new online travel notification system work well to keep the card active?

2) Isn't it ridiculous that given the commonality of international travel, this is even an aggravation in 2013? My account has never been compromised. Is there some sort of "Trusted Traveler" program that can let Chase know "hey, these people travel a lot -- let them use their card"?

3) Does such a Trusted Traveler program exist at any other bank? (Maybe a more global bank, like HSBC)?


Chase is a very convenient / customer-friendly bank in so many other areas, but I'm getting very close to pulling the plug based on this issue alone.