I had a problem with my Lexington State Bank ATM cards in the UK last year. The ATMs in LGW kept saying that they couldn't authorize the card. I used my First Charter Bank ATM card and that worked fine. When I could get a hold of LSB, I talked to the agent who said that due to recent fraud, they'd cut off all overseas transactions on their ATM cards. The agent at my branch had already called down to HQ about it, asking to get my cards unblocked, but was told that there was nothing they could do. The First Charter account didn't have a whole lot of money in it at the time (parts of our accomodations at B&Bs had to be paid for in cash), so we ended up getting a cash advance from AmEx's emergency department. One of the strangest experiences...calling collect from a UK payphone. The first thing you hear when you call the AmEx international number is "Thank you for calling American Express. If this is a collect call, we accept the charges."

Now, I wonder, how much can I trust my ATM cards in Moscow?