Problems using Earth card overseas due to 'fraud hot lists'

[brha01]

I have just returned from a month in the US where I used by Earth card extensively. I have used it in other countries before with no problem, but this time I had the extremely frustrating experience of having numerous transactions (about 10 over the course of the trip out of about 120 or so total) declined. After several occurances I decided to call Westpac and ask what was going on...only to be told that the merchants I was using the card at were on fraud hot lists and the transactions were being declined by Westpac. After a few more I call again, only to be told the same thing. I find this very hard to beleive when some of the merchants are considered-
A major hotel in San Francisco (Global chain)
A major hotel in New York (Global chain)
The box office of a major theatre in New York
A major hotel in Las Vegas
Macy's (ironically, the card worked in 2 different Macy's stores, but not the third)
A Levi Jeans store in San Francisco
A McDonalds

So what is going on? When I listed off some of the merchants to Westpac all they could say was that they must be on this so-called fraud list for a reason. Nothing they can do about it, they will not allow any transactions to go through, even if I am satisfied that the merchant is safe. Luckily I had a ANZ credit card which worked fine at every one of them.

Makes me wonder whether it is time to get rid of the Earth card.

 

[wxxnxs]

I have just returned from a month in the US where I used by Earth card extensively. I have used it in other countries before with no problem, but this time I had the extremely frustrating experience of having numerous transactions (about 10 over the course of the trip out of about 120 or so total) declined. After several occurances I decided to call Westpac and ask what was going on...only to be told that the merchants I was using the card at were on fraud hot lists and the transactions were being declined by Westpac. After a few more I call again, only to be told the same thing. I find this very hard to beleive when some of the merchants are considered-
A major hotel in San Francisco (Global chain)
A major hotel in New York (Global chain)
The box office of a major theatre in New York
A major hotel in Las Vegas
Macy's (ironically, the card worked in 2 different Macy's stores, but not the third)
A Levi Jeans store in San Francisco
A McDonalds

So what is going on? When I listed off some of the merchants to Westpac all they could say was that they must be on this so-called fraud list for a reason. Nothing they can do about it, they will not allow any transactions to go through, even if I am satisfied that the merchant is safe. Luckily I had a ANZ credit card which worked fine at every one of them.

Makes me wonder whether it is time to get rid of the Earth card.

I'm curious how much forex fees did you pay for, must be heaps.

 

[AdMEL]

I have just returned from a month in the US where I used by Earth card extensively. I have used it in other countries before with no problem, but this time I had the extremely frustrating experience of having numerous transactions (about 10 over the course of the trip out of about 120 or so total) declined. After several occurances I decided to call Westpac and ask what was going on...only to be told that the merchants I was using the card at were on fraud hot lists and the transactions were being declined by Westpac. After a few more I call again, only to be told the same thing. I find this very hard to beleive when some of the merchants are considered-
A major hotel in San Francisco (Global chain)
A major hotel in New York (Global chain)
The box office of a major theatre in New York
A major hotel in Las Vegas
Macy's (ironically, the card worked in 2 different Macy's stores, but not the third)
A Levi Jeans store in San Francisco
A McDonalds

So what is going on? When I listed off some of the merchants to Westpac all they could say was that they must be on this so-called fraud list for a reason. Nothing they can do about it, they will not allow any transactions to go through, even if I am satisfied that the merchant is safe. Luckily I had a ANZ credit card which worked fine at every one of them.

Makes me wonder whether it is time to get rid of the Earth card.

Seems a little odd (and concerning). I was in US for 5 weeks a year ago and used my Westpac Altitude Amex and Mastercard everywhere (including similar places to you) from McDonalds to service stations to motels/hotels (including Luxor at Las Vegas) all over the country - not one transaction stopped. My card was stopped the evening before Good Friday this year due to actual fraud though - very annoying! I suspect it was from somewhere I used it in the US.

My travel mate also used a Westpac card extensively - again, not one transaction stopped.

I'm curious how much forex fees did you pay for, must be heaps.

3-3.5%, depending on whether Visa/Mastercard or Amex used.

 

[jamesatfish]

Funnily enough, I had a 2 day trip to the US last week and as my wife came with me we took our Westpac Earth Platinum card which we keep for personal expenses.

Despite advising Westpac of our overseas travel, the very first transaction she tried to make (at a Nike store in Beverly Hills, CA) caused the card to be blocked. Apparently Westpac not only chose to ignore our notification that we would be making purchases in the US on those 2 days, but they ignored the notification of my US mobile number so the only 'verification' they tried to make was an SMS to my (not switched on) Australian mobile number.

After 20 minutes on hold back to Westpac they reluctantly re-activated the card but told me that it would need to be cancelled and replaced as soon as we got back to Australia as it had been 'compromised'. Of course upon arriving back home and going through the transactions with our business manager it is clear that the only 'fraud' was the purchase we were trying to make ourselves.

I was eventually told that Westpac keep a list of 'suspicious merchants' and that buying anything from those merchants, even as a card-present purchase after advising Westpac of the upcoming travel, will cause the card to be blocked by default. I guess it was just luck that of all the Rodeo Drive stores my wife visited the first one she tried to purchase at was a major brand sporting goods outlet - apparently $20K at Tiffanys isn't suspicious but a $99 pair of Nikes is a huge red flag.

I usually travel with my CBA Diamond card and have never had an issue at any merchant anywhere in the world as long as I advised CBA of my travel destinations before leaving Australia.

Based upon last week's experiences I would certainly recommend looking at any card other than the Westpac Earth range if you plan to travel overseas frequently.

 

[Hvr]

Interesting thread, I have used my Earth card extensively in Asia (this year in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sth Korea and Japan) without a problem.

Hopefully I wont have any problems when I go to the USA next year.

 

[Princess Fiona]

We have Earth cards and had previously had similar issues including actual fraudulent transactions from US and Japan. Westpac have since allocated us a personal banker person and since then no problems. We always send him an itinerary before leaving.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

I've used my Earth Platinum Amex quite extensively through the UK, Italy, Switzerland, and at Changi Airport in Singapore, and I had no problems whatsoever (though I did give them a full itinerary of countries by date before I went away, and even though the dates slightly changed (+/- 2 days) when we were away, all transactions still went through perfectly. Planning upcoming trips to Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the USA and Canada - so here's hoping for the same hassle-free experience!

Though I have to say that Westpac's fraud detection is just abysmal - they never detected when I had actual fraudulent charges on the account (all from Malaysia in Ringgits - despite still being in Australia, having never bought anything in that currency before, or having ever been to Malaysia), however they've stopped my card due to a $1 pre-authorisation from Facebook (... which only occurred as a card 'test' after Westpac re-issued the previous card, and despite transacting with them many times before)... each time they were unable to unblock the card over the phone... However, earlier this year, a transaction that was made in $USD set the alarms off again (I made the transaction in question, but the call centre staff insisted that what they were referring to was a *separate* transaction - I said that in this case, the charge wasn't mine. The card was then permanently cancelled, and needed to be re-issued with a new number - only to be transferred to the fraud department to be told that it was actually just the pre-authorisation from the purchase that I had made, but it was now too late to reverse the cancellation process (one week without the cards due to their incompetence...).

And to top it off, a couple of weeks ago I actually called them to say that I would be throwing about $10,000 Qantas' way (among a few other airlines) for a couple of upcoming trips, so that the card wouldn't get blocked. However, they still decided to block the card due to one of the Qantas charges - which I then had to manually confirm, despite already telling them beforehand...

I would dump the card, but the 1 bonus point per $1AUD spent with Qantas isn't available on my CBA Amex...