Fidelity/Elan Rewards credit card international purchases

[mrfeh]

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.

This is how I was verified when making such a purchase.

I always use a PC for this kind of thing. I don't know what would happen if I tried from a phone.

 

[sengsational]

How did they ask if it was you?

I haven't had it happen yet, but they said if they ever had a transaction they were about to reject, I'd get a text message that I could reply to.

Elan had my cell number, and I have alerts for card not present, but this is another division of Visa, so you have to get set up with them.

All theoretical at this point, though. And I don't have any airline ticket purchases planned, so might be a while before I see if it works.

 

[COcheesehead]

I haven't had it happen yet, but they said if they ever had a transaction they were about to reject, I'd get a text message that I could reply to.

Elan had my cell number, and I have alerts for card not present, but this is another division of Visa, so you have to get set up with them.

All theoretical at this point, though. And I don't have any airline ticket purchases planned, so might be a while before I see if it works.

I just had this happen to me. I didn’t get a text. I got a message from the merchant saying contact your bank. I called Elan. They connected me with Visa. Visa sent me a code and asked me to try the transaction again while they were on the line and then it went through. First time I have ever had to do that.

 

[sengsational]

^That was what I encountered, precisely.

But I push on "what about next time" and that's when they signed me up. Or the CSR was just making it up to get me off the phone

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

As another data point, I've recently made international purchases from Hong Kong (FlashForge, 3D printer accessory) and Sweden (Mullvad VPN) with my Elan Visa, and I haven't been asked to verify those. Maybe it's because those are things to be used by me at home, here in the US, whereas those tickets that you both had issues with had to be used overseas. It's like transferring money overseas, which might be harder to prosecute, track, or reverse once it goes through.

I do very occasionally have to verify a text code when ordering from some vendors, though, so maybe I do have that set up. It looks like it's from Visa, not Elan.

 

[COcheesehead]

I just went into my card management at Elan and there are several alerts beyond just transactions alerts, which I already have on. One is a declined transaction alert and an international transaction alert. I have those both enabled now as well.

 

[Ian S]

Welp, just happened again. Tried to book two tours with Getyourguide and my Fidelity card wasn't accepted. I know that hasn't happened before as I've always used my Fidelity card for Getyourguide. Used another VISA card. Maybe I should have set up a trip to Europe then maybe it would go through? It did look like a verification box tried to pop up but after a few seconds, it went away and the getyourguide payment page said my card was declined. This was using Firefox browser.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Welp, just happened again. Tried to book two tours with Getyourguide and my Fidelity card wasn't accepted. I know that hasn't happened before as I've always used my Fidelity card for Getyourguide. Used another VISA card. Maybe I should have set up a trip to Europe then maybe it would go through? It did look like a verification box tried to pop up but after a few seconds, it went away and the getyourguide payment page said my card was declined. This was using Firefox browser.

It sounds like it was trying to give you a verification code but something went wrong. I have so many privacy restrictions on my browser that I usually have to loosen them for purchases, it's possible that some browsers might block third-party popups by default.

 

[Ian S]

It sounds like it was trying to give you a verification code but something went wrong. I have so many privacy restrictions on my browser that I usually have to loosen them for purchases, it's possible that some browsers might block third-party popups by default.

Still, it's odd that it doesn't happen with my other VISA card.

 

[Sunset]

I just went into my card management at Elan and there are several alerts beyond just transactions alerts, which I already have on. One is a declined transaction alert and an international transaction alert. I have those both enabled now as well.

I just had a CC tell me they are no longer to send alerts for declined transactions, seems strange to me, but I do know when I got a declined transaction in China (fraud) that it caused me to phone to and question the transaction (how did it occur?) and state maybe I needed a new CC number.

By eliminating the declined alerts, I bet they get a lot less requests for new cards to be sent out.

 

[COcheesehead]

I just had a CC tell me they are no longer to send alerts for declined transactions, seems strange to me, but I do know when I got a declined transaction in China (fraud) that it caused me to phone to and question the transaction (how did it occur?) and state maybe I needed a new CC number.

By eliminating the declined alerts, I bet they get a lot less requests for new cards to be sent out.

I didn’t seem to have any problem enacting declined alerts at Elan this morning.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I'm the OP here. I just looked at my Alert setup on the Elan website. I have mine ON for declined transactions and international transactions. Last week when I had the failed transactions, I don't think I ever got an Elan/Fidelity alert to anything. It wasn't like the transaction was declined. It was like the transaction failed. I could be wrong, but since I delete my alert messages after they come in, I can't be 100% certain I didn't get alerts. But I don't recall them. I'll pay more attention next time. I still need to purchase some tickets to Westminster Abbey when they go on sale for my dates, so I will be sure to try and use my Fidelity card again and pay closer attention to what happens.

 

[Ian S]

Seems to be hit or miss. Now it worked for Avanti train tickets from London to Glasgow.

 

[tulak]

As another data point, I've recently made international purchases from Hong Kong (FlashForge, 3D printer accessory) and Sweden (Mullvad VPN) with my Elan Visa, and I haven't been asked to verify those.

I have never been able to use the Fidelity card with Mullvad. It always declines.

I ran into this early this week, when I resubscribed to Mullvad to watch women's figure skating recordings, which were - IMO - prematurely removed from Peacock.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

OP here again. Today, tickets for Westminster Abbey went on sale for my dates in April. So I again decided to attempt to buy them with my Fidelity Visa. And as it has with my 2 prior attempts at other sites in England, the transaction failed during the Visa validation attempt. This time, I received a more detailed error message -- the 3D Authentication attempt has failed. I'm familiar with 3D Authentication. It's a standard that has been widely adopted in Europe to authenticate transactions. According to my AI research, Elan supposedly supports the 3D standard.

So I called Elan customer service right after the failed attempt. The Elan agent heard my complaint and then said she would have to transfer me to another agent to fix this. That agent said she didn't know why it was failing at the Visa validation, but she did something and said try it again. When I resubmitted the transaction, it worked. Sort of. My card was charged. I got 3 text notifications that the transaction went thru - "card not present", "international transaction", and "transaction". All the alerts I would expect. Except the Abbey website said the transaction did not work and didn't offer any tickets or anything else. However, shortly after, I got an email from the Abbey confirming the transaction, but still with no tickets. So I will have to track that down with the Abbey, but at least I think it worked.

While this was happening, I got a little agitated with the second agent asking why this couldn't work like it does with other cards I've used with the Visa verification. I told her how my 2 other recent purchases using my Wells Fargo card proved my authentication during the transaction. She replied, we can't do that because you haven't provided us your cell phone number. I told her I most certainly have. I only have one phone number. It's in my Fidelity profile. And I'm quite positive that Elan would have it too.

She then said, that she did not have the phone number on the customer records she was looking at. Then she saw my phone number on her caller ID and said, "I do see your number listed as a 'previous' number in my records, but it's not your current number -- which is empty". Again, I got a little agitated with this, but calmed down and we got the number added in her records.

According to her, in the future, I should get a text message asking me to verify the transaction. I will see what happens. Unfortunately, I don't think I have any more transactions I need to do until I get to the UK in April.

By the way, the second agent did not tell me she was with Visa. Instead she said she was a "specialist with cardmember services".

 

[audreyh1]

By the way, the second agent did not tell me she was with Visa. Instead she said she was a "specialist with cardmember services".

She isn’t with Visa, she’s with Elan cardmember services who issues and manages the card for Fidelity.

Thanks for the detailed report.

 

[mrfeh]

While this was happening, I got a little agitated with the second agent asking why this couldn't work like it does with other cards I've used with the Visa verification. I told her how my 2 other recent purchases using my Wells Fargo card proved my authentication during the transaction. She replied, we can't do that because you haven't provided us your cell phone number. I told her I most certainly have. I only have one phone number. It's in my Fidelity profile. And I'm quite positive that Elan would have it too.

Fidelity is just a brand in this situation. I wouldn't assume Elan can see your Fido profile.

Elan is the organization you need to deal with.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I told her how my 2 other recent purchases using my Wells Fargo card proved my authentication during the transaction. She replied, we can't do that because you haven't provided us your cell phone number. I told her I most certainly have. I only have one phone number. It's in my Fidelity profile. And I'm quite positive that Elan would have it too.

She then said, that she did not have the phone number on the customer records she was looking at. Then she saw my phone number on her caller ID and said, "I do see your number listed as a 'previous' number in my records, but it's not your current number -- which is empty". Again, I got a little agitated with this, but calmed down and we got the number added in her records.

That could be the root of the problem; they had your cell # in the wrong field, and so they couldn't send texts to you to verify the transaction. Well, we'll have to wait and see. But that would fit with Elan being the only card that has this issue.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

She isn’t with Visa, she’s with Elan cardmember services who issues and manages the card for Fidelity.

Thanks for the detailed report.

I realize that. I was including that info because a couple previous posters indicated they were transferred from Elan to Visa to clear the issue up.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Fidelity is just a brand in this situation. I wouldn't assume Elan can see your Fido profile.

Elan is the organization you need to deal with.

I understand that, but I would assume that since Fidelity had only my 1 phone number in it's profile AND that I applied for the card via a process that was initiated and linked to from the Fidelity website that Fidelity and Elan would also have the process to pass the phone number across. In fact, they must have, because she could see my phone number -- just in the wrong field in her database. Elan got my name, address, and linkage to my CMA account from Fidelity, they should have also got the phone number correctly. I think it's fair to assume that this partnership would get basic account set up correct.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

That could be the root of the problem; they had your cell # in the wrong field, and so they couldn't send texts to you to verify the transaction. Well, we'll have to wait and see. But that would fit with Elan being the only card that has this issue.

Agreed.

 

[audreyh1]

I realize that. I was including that info because a couple previous posters indicated they were transferred from Elan to Visa to clear the issue up.

I see. Missed that, sorry.

 

[isisdave]

Do you perhaps have popups blocked? I know it's not your job to debug this, but that might be the case. You could try another browser, another computer, or your phone or tablet.

Here's one thing that I haven't seen mentioned: when I booked Europe adventures 5 months in advance, I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred card because I believe it would have refunded my purchase if I had to cancel due to a covered reason, which would include illness or accident, but maybe even transportation problems on the way to the event. Fido, which is otherwise my preferred card, would not have done this.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Do you perhaps have popups blocked? I know it's not your job to debug this, but that might be the case. You could try another browser, another computer, or your phone or tablet.

Here's one thing that I haven't seen mentioned: when I booked Europe adventures 5 months in advance, I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred card because I believe it would have refunded my purchase if I had to cancel due to a covered reason, which would include illness or accident, but maybe even transportation problems on the way to the event. Fido, which is otherwise my preferred card, would not have done this.

Popups get blocked initially, but I get a notification and can approve them. Nothing happened like that. And the error message was immediate. And a different Visa card, from Wells Fargo, worked on the same screens. I don’t think it was a pop up problem. And the normal Visa authentications usually occurs in the same window.

 

[sandvinsd]

No problems with the Fidelity credit card. Have used it in Japan, Philipppines, and this week in both Central and South America. Never had a problem.