I travel internationally a lot. One of the cards I use frequently is the Capital One Visa. Until a few weeks ago, I could access my account anywhere from my laptop. No longer.

Two years ago, Cap One started requiring me to use two-factor authentication for no apparent reason. This meant I had to receive and enter a 6 digit code every time I logged in. Even if I had logged in and was just changing from the Visa page to my Capital One savings account, I had to log in again with a new 6 digit code.

This was annoying but doable when they would email me the code. Starting a few weeks ago, they dropped the email option. Now the only way to get the code is by phone or a text message. The problem for a frequent traveler like me is that I use a different phone in different countries. Today I am in the US, so I can access Cap One. Next week I'm in Canada. A few weeks later I'll be in France. In each country my phone numbers will be different. I will not be able to get the code.

A Cap One customer service person said if I was willing to do online banking from my phone, I would still need a 6 digit code but then I could get it by email. (Seems odd, but that's what she said.) I do not want to do any online banking from my phone.

Capital One is the only credit card company or bank I know of that has this limitation. Unfortunately, this has been my primary card filed with various online stores or services. Now I have to start the annoying process of changing over all those accounts. Then I can close the Capital One Visa and savings accounts.