International purchasing issues.

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Puff Daddy

Puff Daddy

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I know a few of you US guys buy from overseas, wondering if you've had any trouble using a credit card.

I found a pipe I've been wanting for some time at a good price from a UK retailer. This retailer has an online checkout that accepts visa. I went through the checkout process and when it got time to enter my visa card info I was redirected to a visa authorization page. This was a secondary security measure for international purchases. Asked me the usual info - billing zip code, 3 digit security number, etc.. Finished the checkout process and was notified that the purchase could not be completed. Checked with the retailer first who said the card was declined so I called my bank. They said that I had to verbally agree to waive all security measures for a 24 hour period on that card in order to allow that one purchase to go through on my card. They said that any and all fraud associated with my card or card number during that 24 hour period would be my responsibilty and that neither visa or the bank would be responsible for any fraudulent charges.

"But I'm right here on the phone with you telling you to authorize this one purchase, and only this one purchase"

"I'm sorry sir, but it's either no security on your card at all for 24 hours or no overseas purchases at all".

And this, I'm told, comes from a Visa policy, not my banks policy.

Unfortunately the retailer does not take paypal. That would be so much easier.
 
That is very bizarre from the CC company to do. I often buy things from abroad and never had anything like that happen to me. I don't know what to say. Perhaps try another credit card?
 
I hate all that security malarky/fine print mumbo jumbo but better safe than sorry.

Last time I ordered overseas I requested the dealer hold the pipe for me and sent an International Money Order.

Two days in the mail, pipe arrived three days later.
 
I haven't had that exact issue, but I know that VISA has been implementing some really bizarrely strict rules lately. I can no longer use my card to pay at the gas pump. If I want to use my card to pay for gas, I have to bring it inside. Like you, my problem was with VISA, not the issuer, Chase. My solution was to use a different card.
 
Going back a few years, between the wife and I we had 7 or 8 different charge cards ( visa, discover, gas and department store cards). Many had annual charges, high interest rates, and all had balances. Not good. Now we have one with no balance. I'm not about to go down that road again. If I can't buy it with a Visa or paypal I guess I won't be buying it.
 
...I had some issues with one overseas retailer and my MasterCard... after contacting my bank, the card finally went through...I order from Bolitto, Al Pasica, J. Barber, and J. Fox regularly and haven't had any issues recently...
 
Don't do international sales often but the one I had a yr or so ago went through without a hitch. It was for a pipe from the UK.

Have another pending from the same vendor so will see how it goes in due course.


Cheers,

RR
 
The worse I get when I order from abroad is that I call the bank and ok the purchase, then they allow it to process. Small 5 minute call then all is good.
 
We had issues like this semi-regularly when we sold out of France. It was a PITA, I can tell you. Basically, a number of US credit card companies essentially consider any international purchase to be likely fraud, so they will block or refuse charges. A guy would call us up wanting a pipe, I'd run his card and it would get refused, and I'd have to call him back and get him to authorize the charge with his bank. I'd say we probably had something like this happen on 1 out of every 5 or 6 CC purchases we ran to US buyers. On the one hand, it's nice that the card companies are looking out for the buyers in this way, but it's still an inconvenience both for the seller and for the buyer.

However, FWIW, Paypal *will* process credit cards even if you don't have a PP account. We ended up dodging a lot of that trouble by setting up PP buttons and then Paypal would process the charge and the bank would let it go through. This doesn't help you, obviously, but it's something your vendor should really look into, in this situ.
 
When I bought my Guinness World Record certificate, I tried using my Visa card that is tie to my bank account. I didn't go through.

I used my actual Visa credit card, and it worked just fine.
 
My bank siad they'd allow the transaction when I called them, but they said it would leave my account without any fraud protection for a 24 hour period. This is what I have a problem with, not the fact that I had to call them to authorize the transaction. This seems an absolutely absurd practice.
 
You know, after reading this thread again I realized that some of you are using charge cards. I don´t use charge cards, only credit cards. Maybe that´s where the problem is. Use a credit card instead of a charge card and see if your purchase goes through.
 
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