In message , at 13:50:33 on Sun, 26 Feb
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
I use credit cards in foreign countries regularly. This was due to it
being an electrical retailer without C&P (which you would not expect in
the USA anyway), and not either the amount or the location.

Did you mean _electronics_ retailer?

No really. They sold fridges and washing machines too. Which are hardly
"electronics".

I did think about trying a different card.

It probably wouldn't have helped, unless the transaction was flagged by
the issuing bank rather than the card processor.

It must be flagged by the bank, because banks are the people you are
supposed to tell when you go abroad. I doubt they in turn pre-emptively
inform every card processor in the part of the world you are travelling
to.

And yet I can routinely buy things (expensive as well as cheap) in the
UK from electrical retailers, without any referral to the card company.

I don't get a "referral" to my bank at US retailers; however, they do
ask for photo ID, match it to the name on the card, closely scrutinize
my signature and compare it to _both_ my credit card and ID, and get an
imprint of the credit card--despite swiping it, which makes an imprint
unnecessary at other merchants.

It would be a "referral" if they were instructed to do that by the card
company on a transaction by transaction basis. Would they really do all
that if you were buying was a $5 pack of AA batteries?

--
Roland Perry