u/SaraVerde

We have just returned from international travel (from the U.S. to France, U.K., Denmark, and Sweden). Capital One tells you "no need for travel notifications, we've got you covered". Then they proceed to shut your card down every other time you use it because the transactions seem "unusual". This is their cheap and lazy way to try and use AI to monitor things but not allow you to give it any context, because that would require extra steps and money on their part.

We have had this account (VentureOne) for five+ years. We used the card two years ago when travelling internationally (Norway and Sweden) and had no problems with it. It allowed us to rack up some points and knock off some of the tickets we bought, and gave us peace of mind in case there were issues with debit cards, etc.

This time, same as last time, I had used the card from the U.S. before our trip to buy concert tickets, airfare, pre-pay lodging, and reserve lodging. I went over first and my husband was meeting me there a week later. We had paid a large amount of our balance off so that there was plenty of room on the card for while we were there - we still had a couple of lodging things to charge, and also train and tram tickets, meals, and records to buy.

When I first arrived in France, the card worked fine for a few small charges, then was declined when I tried to pay for my hotel in Rennes. I verified the transaction via text and it worked again. Then, it declined for my one night stay at a Paris hotel, and this time required that I call in. I used something else to pay for the hotel and called in later, but wasn't a quick verification - they wanted copies of my ID and a selfie. I was sitting at a cafe, so I didn't want to do that there and I called in again from the hotel. LUCKILY, I had sufficient other resources and was not stranded with no funds during this time. I spent an hour - AN HOUR - on the phone with them as the ID verification link wasn't working for me. It took escalating the call for someone to finally say that the ID link only works with Chrome or Safari (my default is Firefox) - this should have been stated at the beginning of the process. ID was finally submitted, I'm told everything should be fine now. I reminded them multiple times that there would be more charges from other countries, that my husband would be leaving the U.S. on May 17, and so on.

Card works fine again for small charges my first day and a half in London, then declined when I tried to pay for dinner on the second day. This time, I had to call in again and then they said they need to speak to the primary account holder (the husband), who is at the airport waiting to board his plane. I text him, he calls them, and now they want his ID and a selfie. Which he can't do at that point, so it has to wait. Once again, I LUCKILY have other funds and am not stranded in London at night with no way to pay for anything while trying to get back to my hotel. (Are we getting how dangerous this could have been yet?)

When we rendezvoused the next day in Copenhagen, we called in again. We do the ID and selfie for the hubs. Then they want proof of our home address, such as a bank statement or a utility bill. We're doing all of this on our phones, as we don't have a computer or tablet with us. This is a giant PITA, but we did it. It takes them several days - DAYS - to follow up and say that the PDF of our electric bill was blurry (it wasn't) and didn't have an account address on it (it did). At this point, we say "fxxk it", we're not spending any more of our holiday time on this.

We are home now, and we still have to get this sorted out, but the moral of the story is we'll be keeping this account open and only used to keep credit good, so one tiny charge a month and immediately paid. We lost out on rewards since we couldn't use it, it was an enormous aggravation, and if anything else had gone wrong it could have been a major threat to my/our safety. Having people deny you your own funds in situations like this poses real danger, especially during the parts of this trip when I was alone. At night. In a large city. That I don't live in.

Capital One is NOT SAFE for travelers, especially solo female travelers, so be very very aware of how you are paying for things while you are moving around and have a solid back-up plan. (Shout out to Found and Crew banks, both of which worked GREAT while we were away - they confirmed a few transactions via their apps, and gave us no grief at all. [For some reason, the Vasttrafik app in Gothenburg triggers something every time you use it, just a heads up.]) In the meantime, we'll be looking for a new credit card company. Which was a plan anyway, as I'm trying to shift everything over to less awful companies anyhow, but Capital One really set this thing on fire.