ATM/Debit Card Use on International Holiday

Using your ATM/debit card on an international holiday has become easier and easier. Thomas Talboy recommends that you use a card instead of traveler checks or cash bought from your local bank, in most circumstances. The cards are especially easy to use in Europe but are easy to use in South American and around the world. Ubiquity International agents

But you may still be caught off guard if you do not do several things before you leave the country.

1. Call your bank/card issuer fraud department and inform them that what countries you will be visiting and how long. Usually, you should do this within 24 hours of your departure.

Be broad: you may only be planning a trip to Italy but if you are in the north, you might just cross over to France, Switzerland, Austria or even Slovenia. Tell the bank you are going to Europe instead. Sometimes listing all countries that you intend to visit is good but be sure to say you might go elsewhere.

Give yourself a good amount of time to cover your trip: from the day you depart to two or three days after your return.

The last thing you want is your card to be blocked because of a fraud alert—some banks are really bad at informing you and it may take several international calls before you find out why your card was blocked.

2. Ask your branch what your POS and Cash limit are.

a. POS stands for point-of-sale. This is the limit of how much you can use your ATM/debit card (with an appropriate charge card symbol) for purchases.
b. Cash limit is the amount of cash you can withdraw in your own currency in a 24-hour period

An ATM/debit card comes to you with a pre-assigned limit, usually not connected to any actual cash amount you have in the bank. The limits are often POS: $500 and Cash: $300. Ask your branch to raise these sufficiently so that you can use the card to cover your needs. Since you want to use your card for taking local currency directly from the bank, I would recommend raising Cash to at least $500 but even would go up to $1000 just to be sure.

Since it is more common now to use an ATM/debit card with an appropriate symbol (VISA or MasterCard) for purchases, you want to be sure you can charge what you need to. Think of some last minute, higher cost purchases you might make such a rail tickets: two or three tickets at €200 can easily tip the balance of your POS limit.