Rates Are Up! Get Your Dollars Out From Under The Mattress!

[intrepid]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Have any of you folks who use your Capital One card from the US had any trouble here?

I ask because  I used mine in Philippines for quite a few years before someone opened their eyes and said:  Wait a minute, are you living in Philippines?  So they cut off my card until I went back to Canada and actually phoned them from my home phone.  (I tried to get my brother to call and say he was me but he had done that before and said that enough is enough  )

Now I don't use the card in Philippines but I have used it recently to transfer money to my Philippine bank account when I was buying a car.

Dave, not with the Capital one card.  However, a have a chase card with which I have several reoccuring charges such as health insurance and another one back in the US.  A few months ago I received a call from there fraud department via magic jack.  Somehow my card was used in the Ill.at a town I had never visited for small charges of gas and food.  They cancelled my card and issued a new one.  I explained I'm on a "extended vacation" in the philippines.  They sent the new card via Fed-Ex and I received it in two days and no charge to me.  As for the Capital One, no issues yet.  It is addressed to my Florida account and I get paperless statements. 

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Have any of you folks who use your Capital One card from the US had any trouble here?

I ask because  I used mine in Philippines for quite a few years before someone opened their eyes and said:  Wait a minute, are you living in Philippines?  So they cut off my card until I went back to Canada and actually phoned them from my home phone.  (I tried to get my brother to call and say he was me but he had done that before and said that enough is enough  )

Now I don't use the card in Philippines but I have used it recently to transfer money to my Philippine bank account when I was buying a car.

So far, no problems.  I don't use it very often here in the Philippines.  I do use it in the U.S. too, for online purchases.

1 hour ago, earthdome said:

I made sure I updated my international travel list of countries every few months.

My latest card is a chip card and they don't have travel notifications if you have a chip card.

[Dave Hounddriver]

17 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

My latest card is a chip card and they don't have travel notifications if you have a chip card.

Yep.  Mine too.  They instantly know its you and where you are.  Big brother is watching and that is why I don't want to use my card here.  Usually it will work once before they cut it off and get me to phone them to explain what I am up to  so I will save that "once" until I need it.

[OnMyWay]

6 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yep.  Mine too.  They instantly know its you and where you are.  Big brother is watching and that is why I don't want to use my card here.  Usually it will work once before they cut it off and get me to phone them to explain what I am up to  so I will save that "once" until I need it.

As I said, no issues and no phone calls with mine.  Do you go online at Cap One?  I pay my bill there using my Chase checking.  They have the 2 level authentication so that is another way of verifying that nothing strange is going on.

I think Canadians are more heavily scrutinized, given their typical background in criminal activities.

[Jack Peterson]

2 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

I think Canadians are more heavily scrutinized, given their typical background in criminal activities.

 Man  Here. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

I think Canadians are more heavily scrutinized, given their typical background in criminal activities.

 I think its just that there are certain things that will "red flag" a credit card account and not living in the country is one of them.  Once your account gets flagged then someone checks it from time to time to make sure you are not doing something against their terms of service.  One of their terms of service is that I "reside" in Canada.  Its the same with the Visa card I hold.  The bank knows I "spend most of my time" in Philippines but provided I do not declare that I have moved here and provided I keep most of my pension money in their bank then they look the other way.  But Capital One gives me a better rate and higher limit so I like them better.

[OnMyWay]

The rate has been falling!    50.06 now!

[intrepid]

All we can hope is it's just a short dip.

[scott h]

10 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

The rate has been falling!

Folks say that the rate dips this time of year because of the huge amount of dollars flooding into the country from OFWs as xmas presents. Don't know if its true or not, but I think it will go back up onse the new tax law spurs economic growth and all that stuff 

[OnMyWay]

Looks like the downtrend has turned around.  I exchanged a minimal amount on the 5th to get me by, at 48.49, and I think I caught the bottom perfectly.  Now it has zoomed back up to 50.51 so I am glad I held off on exchanging more.