Hello everyone,

I have been using my US-issued credit cards on my international trips (pre-covid) and several times had cases when the transaction was coded as cash advance and when merchant was not telling you about this or did not even understand (or pretend not to understand) when post-factum you asked about it.

I had cases with topup transit cards and/or paying for services over the counter in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Georgia. Every single time I had to call the card issuer and explain the situation and ask fees to be waived. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes - you are not.

So I decided to share here my experience asking the card issuer or disable or drastically reduce cash advance line and the outcome:

Chase personal cards: by default cash advance limit comes 10-15% of the card's credit line. It can't be disabled, but can be set to the maximum $100 per card - I did it for CSP and United Explorer cards.
US Bank personal card(s): I have only Altitude. It comes with cash advance line of 50% of the total credit line which can't be reduced or disabled. If you want to reduce cash advance line, you need to reduce total credit line, but the 50% ratio will stay.
US Bank business card(s): I have only Leverage. The cash advance line is disabled by default.
PenFed cash rewards and UNFCU Elite card: Have not using cards for a while. Cash advance line can't be reduced or disabled.