www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I learned today that you can inform Schwab of your travel plans on their website. After signing in, go to Service, Contact Us. On the right hand side, there is "Debit Card Travel Notice". You can put in all the information. Much easier than calling or doing a chat session.

I used to tell Schwab (and other CC companies) about my travel dates.

Schwab said that it wasn't necessary. Now I don't bother. Never a problem with Schwab (so far).

FWIW, both my BoA and Citi cards also allow me to do this online, though both were non-intuitive to find.

When I travel out of the country if I do not notify Chase for both my debit card and credit card they will not work at many businesses and not at all at ATMs. The only places where they reliably work without notification in Thailand are chain hotels like the Marriott and Holiday Inn and major airlines like Thai Airways.

My other credit cards are more hit and miss but they always DO work if I fight through the non-intuitive web sites and make my travel notifications.

With Chase I have previously left a travel notification through my branch and still had my card declined until the fraud department had a notification directly from me by phone that I was really in Thailand. I two different times when the ***hole answering the phone said "Oh yes, we have that notification from the branch". They are better now but I still do not trust them.