I know this isn’t strictly travel related, but you guys seem to be the credit card gurus, so I thought you might be able to help me. An elderly relative has had a Chase MC account for over 20 years. He gives additional cards to children and grandchildren, so there are 9-10 authorized cards on the account, and monthly spend can be in the $10,000 up to $50,000 range. Any of the various cardholders might be anywhere in the world at any given time.

The problem is that Chase, like many banks, has put all sorts of anti-fraud and anti-identity theft measures in place. These systems just choke on the volume and number of transactions this account generates, and the fact that transactions come in simultaneously from different countries. Recently, just about every other transaction has been declined and placed the account into a hold, requiring the primary cardholder to call in and authorize the charges. Since the primary cardholder himself might be unavailable for a few days at a time, the whole account is locked up until he returns. Chase has repeatedly promised to exempt this account from these automated systems, but seems unable to do so.

So, we’re looking for a credit card issuer (Visa or MC) that hasn’t implemented all these security measures (yet). They would also need to approve him upfront for a pretty large credit limit. He is happy to provide a history of the Chase statements to show the monthly balances and that they were always paid on time.

I know that Amex is better about this sort of thing, he has Amex as well, but he would like a Visa or MC for this purpose. I also know that many banks have a “private banking” division for high net worth individuals that could probably accommodate this need, the cardholder actually has such a relationship with a bank (not Chase) but he prefers to keep his personal banking and credit card spending separate (he’s very old school).

Any suggestions as to a better card issuer/specific card? Thanks.