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.
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.