cjrgreen: Card not present transactions have different rules. Visa's advertising does not cover the legitimate exceptions, and a foreign card not present transaction has already started to raise flags.
No issuer would be so stupid as to warrant that their card will be honored for just any transaction with just any merchant. Nor would Visa Int. be so stupid as to force them to do so.
Still, an issuer that does blanket declines for any country (unless that country is, say, North Korea) is turning down good business, and that is always a bad move.
hedwards: I disagree, it's none of their business with whom I do business. So long as I'm legally allowed to conduct the transaction they have no right to tell me I can't do it.
Now, holding up a transaction for verification is the proper response for times when they don't think that the risk of fraud is acceptable, but ultimately, it's my money and if I agreed to pay the money then they have an obligation to conduct the transaction. If a merchant is that dishonest then the processor contract should be covering that.
And like I suggested, if I can't use my Visas or Mastercards to do business with everybody that accepts those cards because of a blanket ban of that merchant, then why are they even allowed to take cards? The only reason I can think of for a ban of that sort is a history of fraud by that party, and in that case they shouldn't be allowed to accept CC transactions.
CC are significantly less useful if you can't just assume that if you authorize the transaction that it will go through. This is precisely the sort of crap that PayPal pulls which leads me to not use them if at all possible.
You can disagree all you like. Won't do anything to get Visa to allow you to use your CC under conditions where the issuer has decided they will not do business because of the risk of fraud. Whether this makes a lie of their advertising is of little concern to them and probably affords you no way to seek redress.
Pretty much all Visa card issuers now have country block lists. Each one has its own. Some of these are really damn extreme; I'm looking at one that reads "Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, Croatia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, South Africa, Honduras, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Ukraine, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, Taiwan, Russian Federation, Romania, Italy, Australia." (Frontier Community Credit Union, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) Lists like this usually mean that the issuer will automatically decline any transaction from a merchant located in these countries. Not just require additional verification. Decline, period, no recourse other than changing card issuers. Worst case, they can freeze your card for an attempted transaction that crosses their fraud threshold.
Credit unions are the worst for this. Prepaid Visa issuers are right behind. Commercial banks, which are more used to international transactions, are generally less restrictive. But, sad to say, none of them violate Visa policy. Indeed, I expect Visa policy and their contracts with these issuers
require them to maintain fraud prevention programs.
