mf44

Hello everyone,

I'm not currently an AMEX cardholder but have been thinking about it and the other recent thread posted about declined charges got me wondering.

Anyways, I've currently got a CapitalOne GoMiles Visa (yeah, I know, it's not fabulous, but that's why I'm looking at new options). I still want something with no annual fee, so the AMEX Blue Sky card seems appealing to me.

But the real reason I'm looking to change, or at least augment, the CapitalOne card is their horrible policy towards transactions abroad. I have traveled with this card quite a bit lately and have never had a successful transaction with this card. I always call several weeks in advance and outline my specific travel plans, including exact cities and dates, and regardless, after one transaction abroad, my card is frozen and I need to call in. Obviously this is a huge hassle and actually turned into a major problem for me at one point (long story short: in Beirut during the 2006 war and needed to charge things since the ATMs were running out of USD, needed to call CapitalOne every time I made a charge, dwindling cell phone minutes, etc, etc, you get the picture).

So my question is, how is AMEX about these sorts of things? I understand I should inform my card company about my travel plans and this is no problem. I just hate the fact that even when I do, they don't seem to care and just freeze my card anyways. I've never had this problem with my ATM card, only the CapitalOne...

Also, are there any promotions for signing up for the Blue Sky card at the moment?

Thanks for the help!

Mike