I’ve traveled quite a bit. The only time I had a problem I was in Russia. I notified my bank of the trip. Tickets were on the card (debit card), initial cash withdrawal there on the card, restaurants, street vendors, stores, online shopping, all on the card. Needed a bit more cash and the ATM ate the card. Luckily I had a credit card from a small credit union that had no such controls.
Mine flags my rent payment literally every month when I buy a money order at the Walmart less than a mile from my house. This has been to the same merchant on the same date for almost four years. Even so, they have never once flagged any of my travel.
I’ve started just using the ATM in Walmart and paying cash, because a $1k ATM withdrawal is fine, and they refund ATM fees.
I’ve actually usually been impressed with my credit card provider’s ability to detect fraud. I’ll go on a trip overseas without telling them and all is well. They will flag a weird charge at a restaurant in like North Carolina though. Pretty impressive.
My bank’s app is incredibly detailed about customizing locks on your card. You can go by retailer, type of charge, set geo fences, or even have it only allow purchases where you’re physically located if you let the app have background location.
Years ago when we had a business importing products, my bank allowed a charge from Italy that overdrew my account by $2,300. The company shipped an order we had placed 2-3 months before and just used a card we gave them the year before with no warning. I asked my bank why tf they would allow a purchase from overseas to overdraw my account by over 2,000 (which of course incurred a bunch of fees) and they said they do this “as a courtesy to our customers”. I asked if they could not do that in the future, and they said no. Meanwhile I go and try to buy groceries and if it’s $6 over the limit it’s denied for insufficient funds.
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