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Heard a couple at a cafe in Lisbon talking about their bank freezing their account while abroad
They were from the US but had been in Portugal for 4 months. Their bank flagged the long-term foreign activity as fraud and locked everything. It took them 3 days and a very expensive international call to sort it out. I always notify my bank before a trip, but I guess that's not enough for longer stays. Has anyone set up a specific plan with their bank for being a nomad long-term?
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ericw935mo ago
Remember reading about a guy who had his main account frozen while buying groceries in Mexico City. He had told his bank about the trip, but they still flagged it after two months. He ended up having to use a separate online-only bank account as his main spending money while abroad, which he funded in small amounts from his frozen account. It seems like the fraud systems just can't handle trips longer than a few weeks, no matter what you tell them. I keep a backup card from a different bank for this exact reason now.
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jason_stone595mo ago
Honestly that's a smart move with the backup card. Tbh the issue isn't always the trip length, it's the pattern. Using a card in one country for months then a sudden charge far away still looks weird to their system, even if you told them. They often just note the first location.
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