Kindly provide full details of valid credit card

Get a virtual card (you can get with new banking services like Revolut), which you can block / unblock as desired.

I also like cards where you get notifications on your phone as soon as they get used. despite having a decent amount of subscriptions, I don’t find it too noisy. I’d certainly be able spot an authorized transaction almost on the spot (and with these cards, you can often unlock the “fraud alert” within the app!)

I always disable swipe payments in app, except while actually only making a payment (mostly, in the US).

As for passports, I use one from a different citizenship (I have FR, PT, GB) as the one I use for Banking, although I don’t expect it to be a huge protection. I haven’t been to almost any hotel which doesn’t require an ID (and ends up copying). I accept it as a fact of life, and luckily haven’t run into trouble.

loco wrote:

I know from experience that sooner or later this ends in a series of transactions on my CC

I had an HSBC CC that requires SMS confirmation/reply for every online/phone pay transactions (bloody annoying when the SMS fails to show up as you have to phone call before trying again )

I had a CC ripped, almost certainly at some establishment at Montenegro 1 month ago. A number of transactions were approved by the bank before they decided that a £1800 one to the “3” GSM network was a bit unusual I got an SMS asking about it and ended up wasting a couple of hours on the phone; they refunded them all. Easy to spot because that card I use only when abroad (or for mail order involving a foreign currency), but I check only the paper statements.

This does happen… it takes just a crooked merchant / hotel / mail order establishment. A debit card is best avoided for purchases because you can’t get a refund, or not easily.

Apparently all the fraud was done via a product called Curve Card. I don’t know anything about it.

And of course have more than one CC because if one gets ripped it will get stopped when found out and then you have to use another one.

Amazing it doesn’t happen more often.

@loco

The “problem” here is that certain handling agents in Italy request such “guarantee” for the PPR/parking spot which they reserve for you. If you then don’t come but don’t cancel (or even if you do cancel, but too late) they will charge you up to 200€ or so. In other words, they nowadays treat a PPR more like a hotel reservation. A ridiculous example of overboarding bureaucracy at airports.

I think Delta in Florence and a coupe of other places do that, but maybe even others do so now.

So, you have to give them that guarantee/deposit (which you might loose), otherwise they will not give you PPR.

That’s an outrageous blatent in-your-face robbery, surely?

I bet they get a fair few credit card chargebacks.

The problem is a self-perpetuating one. The move which gets thing rolling in the bad direction is that airports start having a PPR mechanism for parking in the first place.
When that happens, pilots/operators sooner or later take note.
Those who think they are smart will then put in PPR requests for every possible occasion, just to have “one foot in the door”. Most flights (especially Business/VIP) then never materialize. Which leads to the situation that all parking slots are always booked (at least in the season), but the apron is always empty (Biarritz also springs to mind).
The airport takes note of that and introduces a deterrent, and that is the PPR deposit/guarantee. As a side effect, a nice source of income for the aiport, without even being subject to the hassle of actually handling the flight…

The problem is that if airports don’t have any PPR, one day, the GA apron WILL be full (by what the authority licensing the airport deems a “full”), and then Mr. Pilot comes with his shiny jet/turboprop, only to be told he has to leave. He then proceeds to a different airport, but instead of considering a mere case of back luck, he later sues the aiport for his additional expenses, because he hasn’t been warned by the airport about the situation. That is how many PPR rules are born. It often is a pretty acid environment nowadays.

boscomantico wrote:

He then proceeds to a different airport, but instead of considering a mere case of back luck, he later sues the aiport for his additional expenses, because he hasn’t been warned by the airport about the situation

That, in the absence of PPR, is just silly. The equivalent of me suing a car park for being full when “just turning up” for wasting the trip.

If there is no contract for providing parking at a specific time, there is no possible grounds for a suit.

Ibra wrote:

I had an HSBC CC that requires SMS confirmation/reply for every online/phone pay transactions (bloody annoying when the SMS fails to show up as you have to phone call before trying again

Peter wrote:

but I check only the paper statements.

Get one of the online banks. Opening an account is super fast, and they are so much cheaper when it comes to FX (e.g. Revolut uses the interbank rate, not the mastercard/visa “zero fees” but 2% off one).

You also see transactions coming as they go, and you can unlock your card (suspicious transactions) via your phone. I always get surprised how people travelling a lot don’t use these.

edit: I have no financial interest in these, other than them keeping their operations because I now rely heavily on them.

I would agree, although the analogy isn’t quite right, because when a car park is full, you can just go somewhere else close by, and you won’t have any real extra expenses.

Also, whilst any such claim will likely go nowhere, in the meantime, the airport will still have a lot of hassle from the operator(s). Hence, for them it is just easier to introduce PPR, to make it an “orderly process”.