Comment by CWuestefeld | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CWuestefeld | Hacker News Reader

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their potential-fraud-detection department was similarly bad. ("You used your debit card at an AM/PM in Washington State!!!!" Yes, I know, it is about 900 feet from my house; I go there regularly.)

A year ago I had an awful experience with this.

We were on vacation at Big Bend National Park, which is hours away from everything in southwest Texas. When trying to pay for breakfast, our card was denied. I tried to call the card company to tell them that it was OK, but couldn't get through - there was no cell service. Outside the restaurant was a pay phone (remember them?) that I was able to use to call their 800 number.

I learned then that they'd actually flagged my card as stolen, so I could no longer use it at all, and to get it turned back on I needed to receive the code they were sending by SMS and read it back to them. The thing was, we were in a dead cell area, we couldn't get the SMS. And Big Bend is mind-bogglingly huge - 1,252 of square miles of mostly desert (there's a whole mountain ranged entirely contained within the park). As far as I could tell, I didn't have enough gas to drive out of the park to get to cell service to achieve this (the park is so big that it's got its own gas station in the middle, and I'd intended to use this - but without my card, how can I?).

It seemed a perfect trap, there was no way we were going to be able to get out. What eventually saved us was that the hotel manager overheard me shouting at the card people, and came out to give me a map, with the places inside the park that can get SMS text highlighted. Using that I was able to fulfill their requirement.

They never were able to tell me why they flagged the card in the first place. They told me that they advise all card holders to warn them when they plan to go out of state. But I live in Texas, and I was in Texas when the charge triggered. They just shrugged that off.

As someone who travels in remote corners of deserts very frequently, I can say that you can never have too much water, fuel, or cash.

And when you're in a scrape, you can often barter with all three.

My wife and I (we are both Brits) were driving in the middle of nowhere in Washington state. We stopped at a garage to get petrol/gas and discovered that the credit card machines in the unmanned gas station only seemed to accepted credit cards issued in the US - IIRC the PIN equivalent was a US zip code. Our personal credit cards (UK cards) and cash (no teller) were thus useless. Luckily my wife had a corporate credit card issued in the US that we were able to use, on the principle that she could ask for forgiveness from her company when we got back.

For foreign credit cards oftentimes entering 00000 or 99999 for zip code works.

The other thing that sometimes works is entering the digit part of your postal code and padding it out with zeros. Ex: if your postal code was 1A2B3C you'd enter 12300.

If you're visiting remote parts of Texas, always have a hat with a brim (there's a reason that cowboy hats are shaped the way they are), bottled water, and a few hundred dollars in cash.

I would add Imodium AD, analgesics, some power bars and jerky, condoms, tampons if you’re female or traveling with women, a compass, weatherproof matches, a small mirror, and a good knife.

Condoms? No emergency so dire as to miss a chance to get laid?

For keeping your matches in if it rains.

Never underestimate the value of condoms for purposes other than intercourse. They’re highly portable, durable, can hold a lot of liquid, and are waterproof. You can use them to waterproof anything from a car’s spark plugs to some tinder or even food. They’re useful as part of dressing certain minor wounds too.

I've had really random declines from time to time for no apparent reason--sometimes for very small amounts. I make a point these days of having backup cards across multiple networks (i.e. both Visa and Mastercard).

Also spare ID and cash. The one time I broke this last rule on a trip I was nearly really screwed. (I lost my license and the hotel didn't want to let me check in. They only relented when I showed other ID and was able to make a just large enough withdrawal from an ATM and pay cash.)

I learned not travel with just one credit card after my CU botched a software update while I was in a middle of the trip in Prague - already checked out from the hotel but not yet taken the rental car to drive to the next hotel in a different city. The looming possibility of sleeping in the street was rather instructive.

Since then I always carry three credit cards when traveling, from three different banks, and each from a different payment system in case if a systemic issue.

Card fuckup is the only reason I have even a little cash on hand. Even the second hand store near me takes cards now. It is my policy if I am any distance from home to carry a spare car key, and enough cash to fill the tank and get home.

Considering that we could eliminate fraud with a private key chip card, this is really, really sad.

Another reason to have some cash is so if you're mugged, the mugger won't be so disappointed they take it out on you.

Oh I don't carry the cash on me.

I probably should worry more about muggers, but I just can't get myself to be afraid, so.

It's fairly common to read a story about how some carjackers abandoned a car because it unexpectedly had a manual transmission, but I think I also read about a case where they shot the driver out of pique.

This is the reason I always travel with >1 debit cards (different banks) and >1 credit cards (different banks)

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