Forget messing around with NFC; this is what I want from banks. The Commonwealth Bank lets you tell it you’re planning a trip overseas through a simple form on its NetBank service.
Telling your bank you’re going to be travelling is a sensible move, since otherwise transactions from overseas are likely to be flagged as suspicious. Too many of them and your card may be suspended altogether, which is a massive nuisance.
You can notify banks of your travel plans by phone or by visiting a branch, but doing it online is much simpler. I suspect it may also be more reliable. I once informed the Commonwealth in person and then still had my transactions flagged anyway.
Do other online banks in Australia also now have this feature? Tell us in the comments.
Comments
4 responses to “You Can Now Tell Commonwealth Bank You’re Heading Overseas Online”
St George (and so presumably Westpac as well) have had this for some time, at least a year I’d guess. I’ve used it on numerous occasions.
It would be even cooler if they then auto converted all your currency to the country advised for free 😉
This isn’t really necessary these days. Whilst I cringe at the mis/over-use of “big data” terminology these days, data mining for fraud detection is one of the things that has benefited most from modern data science and practice. It’s pretty good at determining what is a legit overseas holiday and what is a skimmed card.
(Flights+Travel Insurance+Airport transaction+Overseas ATM+Giant spending spree at a Bangkok Mall looks very different to Local ATM+Local ATM+Local Dominos Delivery+Petrol Station in Tuscon, Texas+Giant Shopping spree in Texas)
I lol’ed at this article. I thought all banks had this. I’ve been able to do this on ANZ online since 2009 when I told them I was off to Tokyo.