7 ms·
Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’
by adrr 7y ago
Biggest industry affected is the banks. They’ll ping your phone location if you make out of area purchases as a part of fraud detection. If your bank doesn’t require travel notices, they are probably pulling mobile location. Some don’t, I know chase uses mobile app to determine location.
- sjg007 7y agoThis isn’t a carrier selling the data issue. In the mobile app case you install the app and authorize location tracking.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- russdill 7y agoThe saddest thing about this is that my bank no longer requires notification for international travel, but still does for travel within the US. I've had my card shut off for fraud a few times while traveling in the US. Once when I had almost no gas and was outside of cell service, thanks for that. This is presumably due to all transactions outside of the US requiring chip, but those in the US only requiring swipe.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoSwitch banks? I have never once had American Express decline a charge domestic or international. Highly recommend!
- 8note 7y agocarry cash? no one is going to not accept that
- toomuchtodo 7y agoGas pumps will sometimes work after hours even if a clerk isn’t on duty. Same with other self service situations where a card might be your only payment option. Carrying cash is a last resort; you risk losing it or not having enough.
- ericd 7y agoHow often do you lose your wallet? If I lose mine, I won’t be stressing about the $200 inside. But true enough on the unmanned gas stations.
- maximente 7y agoactually this isn't true - i was in Seattle and there's at least one cashless Starbucks and one restaurant (Kati Vegan Thai); when i asked at both places they patiently explained that they couldn't accept cash at either one.
- Naracion 7y agoSome places don't accept cash to reduce the risk of theft--we don't carry cash, you can't steal from the cash register.
- thewhitebug 7y agoOpposite position here - American Express was the one card I could not use anywhere in my first European trips 20 years ago (don't know it that's changed) - ditched it forever then. MC and Visa works for me. Never looked back.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago20 years is a long time! I suggest you give them another shot. I have their Platinum card and the service has been top notch (although paying for their charge card is not required if you pick a product with no annual fee).
- franga2000 7y agoWait, the US is still on magstripe? Isn't that literally just a bar code? No challenge-response, or encryption? Fraud detection seems like the wrong thing to be focusing on if that's the case...
- hnuser123456 7y agoIn my area, almost everything has been chip for the last couple years, except gas stations. My local gas station just installed chip readers a few months ago.
- Teever 7y agoYeah, it's even worse than that. I was recently in the bay area and I went to pay for a burger with my Canadian chip&pin card and when I the card in the transaction was automatically approved with no need to enter the pin. This was quite alarming.
- hnuser123456 7y agoYeah, we do chip, and maybe signature if we feel like it
- cmbailey 7y ago"feel like it" is practically never. I haven't had anyone ask to see my physical card to compare signatures in over five years.
- ZeikJT 7y agoIsn't this really in service of the customer to not waste their time? The store is the one shouldering the risk because if it turns out to be a thief using the card the store loses money/goods. The more they try to verify you are who you say you are the less risk they are incurring. That's a benefit of credit, it's less risky for the consumer in the end.
- 7y ago
- ghaff 7y agoMake a point of carrying a spare card from a different bank and maybe a different payment network. In my experience, you’re always going to hit random declines from time to time.
- sizzle 7y agoAlso some emergency cash up to $100 hidden in the car where only you would know where to look is worth the peace of mind knowing technology is not infallible.
- ghaff 7y agoYes, I was assuming some cash as well. Appropriate currency, dollars in particular most places, is always useful when traveling. But if you’re at a supermarket checkout and your card is randomly declined (has happened to me) it’s nice to be able to pull out another card.
- underpand 7y agoDo banks actually buy location data from carriers?
- dehrmann 7y agoOr, you know, hedge funds.
- gersh 7y agoI think they can just tell the zip code where you use the card.
- JshWright 7y agoRight, they know where the transaction is taking place. The point is that they can have much higher confidence that the card hasn't been stolen (or cloned, in the case of mag stripes) if your phone is also in the same zip code.
- sizzle 7y agoThey can just ping their banking app on your phone and estimate your geolocation via ip address. No network provider level snooping needed.
- badrabbit 7y agoThey'll ping your phone? Are you kidding me? You mean they'll look up records right, not a realtime query of device location? How is that legal?
- adrr 7y agoE911 location is real-time.
- service_bus 7y agoI think you're confused. Banks aren't buying location information from carriers. This has nothing to do with them being able to get your location from their app.
- adrr 7y agoSome banks get it off the app like Chase. Some don’t and pull E911 location on out of the area auth for a card present transaction.