Why can't I use my American credit card on European websites?

April 3, 2023 2:30 PM

I have a Bank of America credit card, with no hinky fraud protection enabled, but it will not resolve any payments to Deutsche Bahn, SBB (Swiss railways), or the hotel we're trying to book in Lyon, France. WHY???

bahn.com and sbb.ch both use 3-D Secure payments, which should already be enabled for my credit card. The French hotel uses Verifone, which should already be enabled.

When I called my credit card, their fraud protection team didn't see any declined payments.

I get the same behavior on Chrome and on Firefox, with and without U-Block adblocking software on.

bahn.com was able to resolve the payment just fine through paypal, so it's not just something software on my end wrecking everything.

Has anybody else had a problem like this? Is there an extra magic I need to enable with Bank of America? If so, what is the extra sorcery called?

posted by ivan ivanych samovar to Travel & Transportation (13 answers total)

Response by poster: I should mention, casual googling is turning up a bunch of hits for people trying to use the machines at the train station in the pre-chip-and-pin era. No hits for "why doesn't this work now, for the online interface".
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:31 PM on April 3, 2023

What "brand" of credit card is it? I don't mean Visa vs. MC, I mean the name of the card -- like "FreedomPlus" or "Sapphire Reserve" or the like.

In the meantime, one remote possibility that occurs to me is that it might be the billing address not matching, because the foreign processor is sending it in a format BofA thinks is "wrong" (even though it's not; a silly example might be ZIP-vs-Postal Code). I had that happen some years back, so I'd be surprised if it was still a problem, but with financial institutions you never know...
posted by aramaic at 2:43 PM on April 3, 2023

What happens UI-wise, does the page just say declined transaction without a reason?

A mismatch in address formats seems plausible, but it's about all I can theorize.
posted by Alensin at 3:18 PM on April 3, 2023

I don't have an solutions to offer but I have been having a similar issue with my Mastercard lately, for no discernable reason. Same thing: transactions just not going through, usually on foreign websites, no matter what security gates I pass, and bank not seeing any payment requests at all to even trigger something on their end.

My Visa always goes through.
posted by urbanlenny at 3:24 PM on April 3, 2023

Response by poster: Alaska Airlines visa, with Bank of America as the backend. I am currently on hold with them trying to confirm that 3-D secure is actually enabled.

I have wondered about the address mismatch being a possible issue, although the zip code (postal code) usually seems to be the only kind of verification that anyone is currently using in my part of the US.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:31 PM on April 3, 2023

I have a B of A card for work, and it does all kinds of weirdness with "foreign" addresses. The most egregious was charging a foreign exchange fee for a US-Europe flight that was bought on a US website, in USD, but because it ended overseas, got hit with a forex fee. I called the number on the back of the card and they were spectacularly unhelpful. Meanwhile, my personal cards (Citi and CapitalOne) don't pull those shenanigans. So I think it's a Bank of America thing. If you have another option, use that.
posted by basalganglia at 3:31 PM on April 3, 2023

Response by poster: UI-wise...basically, yes, it just says some variation of "woopsy doodles, didn't work, no details." The French hotel at least said that politely in French, which was a nice change.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:33 PM on April 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: UPDATED UPDATE: nope, it was some kind of hinky fraud protection. The second person I got ahold of, this afternoon, was able to confirm that it was lifted this morning, then a series of miracles had to occur, and by 5 hours later, the fraud blockage was finally cleared.

Thanks for the moral support, everybody.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 4:02 PM on April 3, 2023 [9 favorites]

You have to specifically ask them to "enable my card for international use, please."
posted by kschang at 5:56 PM on April 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've run into this a few years ago while trying to buy European train tickets (SNCF) with a U.S. card. There's something specific to train tickets that seems to raise security alerts. This was also with B of A.

I'll note that I've used B of A cards while travelling, and while shopping online at non-U.S. sites, and otherwise I've never had an issue--but train tickets set off a red alert.
posted by gimonca at 6:34 PM on April 3, 2023

I always bring at least three cards when traveling because as far as I can tell the fraud alert system is random.

My favorite example was when I spent a week buying things on a cruise ship and all over Mexico on a credit union Visa card, and the last day of the trip it stopped working. I called their fraud department and they had detected a suspicious $30 charge at "A bookstore" made just before the trip started.

It was Amazon.com.
posted by mmoncur at 8:09 PM on April 3, 2023

This just reminded me of something: automated unattended use of card that had something to do with transportation freaks out the card security people.

Previously, I had a card freakout many years ago, when I had filled up the gas, then went to a jewelry store to finish a purchase. The card terminal at the jewelry store flashed: "Denied, call bank ASAP".

At that time, I was told that my usage fit a particular pattern, using the card to fill up the gas, which at the time, was only 20-30 (that tells you how long ago it was, LOL) then the same card shows a charge at jewelry store for much higher amount, and it's that use that alerted the bank / card issuer. Come to think of it, I *may* have used the "pay at pump" and never went inside.

I suspect something similar may have happened here: you tried to use the card at an automated ticket machine, and the main computer back at the bank decided that's a risky enough business to stop accepting the card unless specifically overridden.
posted by kschang at 9:42 PM on April 3, 2023

I see you've got it resolved; in my experience, it's because BofA's (credit card) business is a dumpster fire. I book a lot of travel for our office, and we're constantly getting new cards or have to call to clear "fraud protection". "Yes, you just bought a ticket to $international_city using our card, and you just booked at rental car in $international_city using our card, but we think that booking a hotel room in $international_city is hinky. Denied."
posted by yggdrasil at 1:13 PM on April 5, 2023