Fidelity/Elan Rewards credit card international purchases

[PaunchyPirate]

I have had my Fidelity/Elan Rewards credit card for about 2 months now. I’ve been using it with no issues so far. Happy customer. However, twice this week the card failed to do an international transaction when I was doing online purchases for some entry tickets to sites in England for my upcoming April trip. The messages I received weren’t very helpful, just that the transaction failed. In both cases, I immediately retried with my Wells Fargo card and the transaction was cleanly processed (after a Wells Fargo instant verification process, which is common).

I had already entered a travel notification for the trip on my Fidelity/Elan account. So they know I’m planning on going to England in April.

Have others had any issues using their Fidelity Visa with such overseas transactions? It makes me hesitant to plan on using it for my upcoming trip, for sure. I guess since it’s a new card, the may be especially vigilant to watch fraud attempts, but there are ways to work around that. Wells Fargo certainly does with its verification step.

Any thoughts?

 

[foxcreek9]

Don't have that card but this is why we have 4 different cards (chase, WF, CapOne, and BOA) when we travel, it's always something. I have also found when ordering train tickets, etc from home using PayPal works well plus you are not exposing your CC number.

 

[braumeister]

I had already entered a travel notification for the trip on my Fidelity/Elan account. So they know I’m planning on going to England in April.

That's exactly the issue. They think you won't be using it until April, so they assume it's fraudulent. Not really a problem. Just use another card, or deal with the verification routine.

 

[audreyh1]

I usually use a different card for international online purchases from home, but I haven’t had trouble using the Fidelity Visa overseas. I do add a travel notice shortly before our trip. I’ve never added a travel notice way in advance.

 

[mrfeh]

Have others had any issues using their Fidelity Visa with such overseas transactions? It makes me hesitant to plan on using it for my upcoming trip, for sure. I guess since it’s a new card, the may be especially vigilant to watch fraud attempts, but there are ways to work around that. Wells Fargo certainly does with its verification step.

Any thoughts?

No problems here. Fido is our primary card; just used it in Central America and Italy last year.

There is a secondary authentication step when making the kind of purchase you described.

ETA - IIRC, they sent a code (via text) to my phone. I believe this is required/implemented by Visa and not Elan

 

[mrfeh]

Paunchy - is your WF card Visa or MC?

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Paunchy - is your WF card Visa or MC?

My WF is a Visa. Just like the Fidelity card.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

No problems here. Fido is our primary card; just used it in Central America and Italy last year.

There is a secondary authentication step when making the kind of purchase you described.

ETA - IIRC, they sent a code (via text) to my phone. I believe this is required/implemented by Visa and not Elan

When my Fidelity card failed, no request to authenticate was sent to me. Either time. The vendor’s website just reported back that the transaction failed. My WF card, on the other hand, triggered authentication by sending me a text message with a link in it. Opening the link opens the WF app on my phone, which I sign into via authentication (FaceID on my iPhone) and then it asks if I am the one attempting to make the transaction. I say yes, and the transaction proceeds on the vendor website. The vendor, was the organization that sells the tickets to Windsor Castle and the Tower of London. So not shady vendors.

 

[mrfeh]

My WF is a Visa. Just like the Fidelity card.

Interesting.

I'd contact Elan.

 

[COcheesehead]

No problems here. Fido is our primary card; just used it in Central America and Italy last year.

There is a secondary authentication step when making the kind of purchase you described.

I just went through this process. It was new to me. I got a message that said contact your bank. I called Elan, they connected me with Visa. Visa sent the code and the transaction went through. First time for everything.

 

[euro]

Never had an issue with foreign transactions with my Fido/Elan. Have been using it for probably 25 years.

 

[FIREd_2015]

I've used the Fidelity Rewards card in Europe in 2023 & 2024 without any problems. I think the issue is you are in the US trying to buy something online in the UK (card not present plus distance). Most of my purchases were made with card at merchant or I was in a neighboring country when I made an online reservation/purchase.

 

[Slim11]

Common issue with all cards, they think fraud is involved. You call them and its resolved. When traveling I would call the card carrier to tell them I would be out of country, etc. This was great untill one card carrier blocked all my transactions because I wasnt in that state yet. When I told them we would be traveling cross country driving. So , who knows. Have extra cards just in case.

 

[Koolau]

Don't have that card but this is why we have 4 different cards (chase, WF, CapOne, and BOA) when we travel, it's always something. I have also found when ordering train tickets, etc from home using PayPal works well plus you are not exposing your CC number.

Right. We never travel with fewer than 4 card. You never know when there will be a glitch.

 

[tulak]

I've had the occasional issue using Fidelity for online international transactions. Never any issues in person, but usually those were using Apple Pay with the Fidelity card.

Whenever it happened, I used a different credit card that worked fine. I figured that Elan/Fidelity is more aggressive with international charges.

 

[audreyh1]

This is interesting. Even though Fidelity Visa dropped their 1% international transaction fee years ago, we still have used other cards as before for international online purchases. I guess we would have run into this otherwise. Fortunately we haven’t had trouble when we are overseas as it’s a handy backup even though we don’t use it much overseas. We generally use Costco Citi Visa for dining/hotel and BofA travel rewards Visa overseas as these have higher rewards plus no transaction fee.

 

[mrfeh]

This is interesting. Even though Fidelity Visa dropped their 1% international transaction fee years ago, we still have used other cards as before. I guess we would have run into this otherwise. Fortunately we haven’t had trouble when we are overseas as it’s a handy backup even though we don’t use it much overseas. We generally use Costco Citi Visa for dining/hotel and BofA travel rewards Visa overseas as these have higher rewards plus no transaction fee.

To be clear - the only time I've encountered this extra security step (which may be the cause of the OP's troubles) is when a) I am in the US and b) the vendor/company is outside the US and c) the card is not physically being used (just the number is being provided).

When actually in the foreign country, everything is routine.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, understood. We have never tried to use it for international purchases from the US. Clarified above post.

 

[misanman]

As others have reported, we have never had a problem using the Fidelity card when we were outside the US. But I recently ran into this issue when purchasing London tickets for a planned trip to England, Scotland, and Iceland. The purchase was denied and I had to use an alternate card.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like I am not alone in this issue of making online purchases from the USA for international transactions. It's not a big deal, as I have other cards. And I will, of course, have a couple backup cards with me on my trip as well as Apple Pay, which I use everywhere I can. I would suspect that with the travel notification in place that I will have no issues using the card in Europe if I choose to. Actually, when traveling, my Wells Fargo card is the one I use most often because it gives 3% cash back on restaurants, hotels, etc. And that's what the bulk of my international charges are for when traveling.

Nonetheless, If I remember, I may call Elan customer service this week to inquire about it a little.

 

[Ian S]

I have had my Fidelity/Elan Rewards credit card for about 2 months now. I’ve been using it with no issues so far. Happy customer. However, twice this week the card failed to do an international transaction when I was doing online purchases for some entry tickets to sites in England for my upcoming April trip. The messages I received weren’t very helpful, just that the transaction failed. In both cases, I immediately retried with my Wells Fargo card and the transaction was cleanly processed (after a Wells Fargo instant verification process, which is common).

I had already entered a travel notification for the trip on my Fidelity/Elan account. So they know I’m planning on going to England in April.

Have others had any issues using their Fidelity Visa with such overseas transactions? It makes me hesitant to plan on using it for my upcoming trip, for sure. I guess since it’s a new card, the may be especially vigilant to watch fraud attempts, but there are ways to work around that. Wells Fargo certainly does with its verification step.

Any thoughts?

Wow! The exact same thing happened to me this past Wednesday. May 2026 tickets for the Big Ben inside tour went on sale at 3:00 am my local time so I was all prepared with my Fidelity VISA card but just like you found, it wouldn't work! I had to use another credit card (also VISA) and it worked. Same problem: no verification step with Fidelity but there was one with the other card. I've not had that happen before. I think I will ask Elan about this. I've made some hotel and tour reservations but all with delayed payment and there's not been an issue in the past. One hotel did require upfront payment but that went through but maybe because I used Booking.com. Coincidentally, I recently received a new Fidelity card even though the old one had a couple of years to go. DH also received one but his has a different card number - in the past our numbers have been the same because it's all one account.

 

[mrfeh]

Coincidentally, I recently received a new Fidelity card even though the old one had a couple of years to go. DH also received one but his has a different card number - in the past our numbers have been the same because it's all one account.

Fidelity Visa updated to unique card numbers for each user

We got email notice today that we will be receiving new Fidelity Visa cards, and they are updated such that each user will have their own card number. I will retain the original number, but DH will be given a new number to use. I appreciate this as I love having unique numbers because if one...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Wow! The exact same thing happened to me this past Wednesday. May 2026 tickets for the Big Ben inside tour went on sale at 3:00 am my local time so I was all prepared with my Fidelity VISA card but just like you found, it wouldn't work! I had to use another credit card (also VISA) and it worked. Same problem: no verification step with Fidelity but there was one with the other card. I've not had that happen before. I think I will ask Elan about this. I've made some hotel and tour reservations but all with delayed payment and there's not been an issue in the past. One hotel did require upfront payment but that went through but maybe because I used Booking.com. Coincidentally, I recently received a new Fidelity card even though the old one had a couple of years to go. DH also received one but his has a different card number - in the past our numbers have been the same because it's all one account.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[sengsational]

Nonetheless, If I remember, I may call Elan customer service this week to inquire about it a little.

I was buying airline tickets and the transaction didn't go through. I called Elan and they made me call the fraud department. I let them know how difficult they were making it for me and customers like me and they asked me if I wanted to give them my cell phone number so I could say "that's me" without have to fiddle around on the phone for a half an hour. I said YES! Then they pushed some buttons that allowed the ticket purchase to be accepted. Of course I had to go through the drawn-out process of typing in all the booking information again, but at least it finally worked.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I was buying airline tickets and the transaction didn't go through. I called Elan and they made me call the fraud department. I let them know how difficult they were making it for me and customers like me and they asked me if I wanted to give them my cell phone number so I could say "that's me" without have to fiddle around on the phone for a half an hour. I said YES! Then they pushed some buttons that allowed the ticket purchase to be accepted. Of course I had to go through the drawn-out process of typing in all the booking information again, but at least it finally worked.

How did they ask if it was you? A voice call? Text message?

Elan/Fidelity already has my mobile number. And I’ve enabled a ton of alerts. And I use the Fidelity app. They have ample ways to interact with me during a transaction.

In this day and age, I would expect the default method of an international purchase would be to send me a text message to verify my purchase. Or, very commonly, to use Visa’s method of popping up a box on the computer where I verify myself in some way. Elan and Visa did nothing for my two failed transactions.