GameRager: I would boycott such behavior then, and get another bank asap. If not illegal that kind of behavior seems at the very least like utter bullshite.

cjrgreen: If you have cash money in your pocket, it is your money, and you are free to use it as you please.

Put that money in a bank or buy a payment card with it, and the rules change. It's not just your money, it's a liability that the bank is responsible for. They have to take that responsibility seriously, and that includes making sure it does not get paid out under conditions where they are not certain it is being paid out under your valid order.

Because they have approximately a trillion times the experience that you or I do with recognizing what is or isn't an attempt to defraud them, arguing with them will get you nowhere.

GameRager: Yes but if you then tell them you ok the money going out and they are notified it isn't fraud and they still don't do it then it's not them covering their asses anymore.

GameRager: Um, because you told them the exact time frame/amount/etc beforehand so they know it's you making it?

cjrgreen: You get into an infinite regress this way. How do they know it was you who told them?Fraudsters are really good at knowing enough about you to impersonate you well enough to authorize a transaction.

GameRager: I find it hard to believe that such preferential blocking of legitimate sales(especially if you're using a debit card linked to your own money) can be legal.

MonstaMunch: That's exactly how I feel about Steam.

cjrgreen: 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.

cjrgreen: When it's an Internet transaction in a country where payment card fraud is common, how the Hell do they know it's you?