cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advices

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advices

Hello friends, 

 

Need a quick answer / help to resolve a problem we are currently foreseeing…

 

Since you would have shopped using a DEBIT/CREDIT card issued by an Indian bank organization 
in the past from a International/US based store or merchant (actual store/mall in a foreign country) did 
you face any problem with them accepting your card?
 
If you would kindly share your experience, that would help us greatly..Please pass it on to whoever you think could help..
Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
armbenderc
Valued Contributor

Re: Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advice


@Anonymous wrote:

Hello friends, 

 

Need a quick answer / help to resolve a problem we are currently foreseeing…

 

Since you would have shopped using a DEBIT/CREDIT card issued by an Indian bank organization 
in the past from a International/US based store or merchant (actual store/mall in a foreign country) did 
you face any problem with them accepting your card?
 
If you would kindly share your experience, that would help us greatly..Please pass it on to whoever you think could help..

I don't see any reason why it would be a problem. Any bank that offer debit/credit that are issuing mastercard/visa network should be accepted world wide.

2013 Approvals: Discover IT - 3/1, Amex BCE - 3/4, CSP - 5/4, Barclay Ring - 6/12, BoA Privileges Cash - 6/27, Citi TY Preferred - 8/6, OCCU Duck - 11/4, USBank (Cash+) - 11/22, Wells Fargo - 12/21, Nordstrom - 12/29

12/19/2013, $100k+ Available Credit. Total Util: 0-1%
Message 2 of 6
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advice

I can only share my 2cents of using credit & debit cards issued by Russian banks. I don't know if it can be fully applied to your case, but I would assume potential issues should be rather similar.

 

Apart from an obvious option of payment going well, I would assume two possible scenarios of payment failures. They are the following:

1) Payment rejected by the merchant / merchant processing bank

2) Payment rejected by the issuer bank

 

Looking at each of those issues separately:

1) I have heard about (and actually seen some) online merchants rejecting internationally-issued cards (some stores still have a note "US-issued cards only"), but I've never seen a real brick-n-mortar store rejecting a proper credit/debit card just based on the country where it is issued. I am obviously not an expert, but I can assume it might be a violation of Visa/MC policy (not sure about Amex/DS, but should be similar) not to accept cards bearing their respective logos purely on the basis of the issuer country. I cannot also imagine this from the pure practical point of view as lots of stores have "external" POS-terminals/keypads operated by the customer him/herself without handing the card over to the cashier. This way I can't even see how they'd guess that the card is not US-issued as long as they never see it. Personally, I never had issues with any Russian-issued cards in any of US brick-n-mortar stores from this perspective (store rejecting to accept foreign card).

 

2) Indian (as well as Russian, British or any other) bank might for some reasons impose regional limitations / amount limits on using a particular card. This is a feature of a specific bank / card and has nothing to do with the store itself, but rather with some security concerns (most often) or cra*py marketing ideas like positioning cards with lower fees for domestic use only vs "platinum debit" cards with skyrocket fees for international use. Normally this kind of issue should be easily tackled just by contacting the bank, unless it is a kind of a "local/domestic use" card - some Russian banks used to issue such debit cards (especially in partnership with some socially-oriented institutions) to transfer retirement benefits and other social/government payments with limited usage only in Russia, but I think this is a very rare example. 

 

The only "real" issue I might see is the following - in Russia most of the cards issued by local banks used to be the debit ones (so, with no CL attached to them), but due to some historical reasons, absence of proper domestic payment systems (like Laser in Ireland or ECCard in Germany), and Russian accounting standards they were treated by banks as "Credit cards with zero limit". Tricky part here is that if you try to use such a card in the US in any vending machine and choose "Debit" option, your payment will simply be rejected, because this card can only be considered as "credit" internationally. I have no idea if that is the case or not with Indian issued cards, but it might well be.

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 3 of 6
trumpet-205
Valued Contributor

Re: Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advice


@mikka1 wrote:

1) I have heard about (and actually seen some) online merchants rejecting internationally-issued cards (some stores still have a note "US-issued cards only"), but I've never seen a real brick-n-mortar store rejecting a proper credit/debit card just based on the country where it is issued. I am obviously not an expert, but I can assume it might be a violation of Visa/MC policy (not sure about Amex/DS, but should be similar) not to accept cards bearing their respective logos purely on the basis of the issuer country.


It is not a violation in merchant agreement to not accept a foreign credit card. There is a lot of reason why foreign credit card is not accepted (both in store and online).

 

1. Lack of AVS (address verification system) for foreign card --- online only

Most foreign credit cards do not support AVS. AVS is one of the method to combat credit card fraud.

 

2. High risk

Statistically speaking, foreign credit card carries much higher risk than domestically issued card. They are more prone to chargeback.

 

3. No support from merchant account

Some merchant accounts do not support foreign credit card to begin with.

 

Message 4 of 6
mikka1
Frequent Contributor

Re: Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advice


@trumpet-205 wrote:

@mikka1 wrote:

1) I have heard about (and actually seen some) online merchants rejecting internationally-issued cards (some stores still have a note "US-issued cards only"), but I've never seen a real brick-n-mortar store rejecting a proper credit/debit card just based on the country where it is issued. I am obviously not an expert, but I can assume it might be a violation of Visa/MC policy (not sure about Amex/DS, but should be similar) not to accept cards bearing their respective logos purely on the basis of the issuer country.


It is not a violation in merchant agreement to not accept a foreign credit card. There is a lot of reason why foreign credit card is not accepted (both in store and online).

 

1. Lack of AVS (address verification system) for foreign card --- online only

Most foreign credit cards do not support AVS. AVS is one of the method to combat credit card fraud.

 

2. High risk

Statistically speaking, foreign credit card carries much higher risk than domestically issued card. They are more prone to chargeback.

 

3. No support from merchant account

Some merchant accounts do not support foreign credit card to begin with.

 


Actually, I think it is a violation. 

VIOR core principle 6.2

Core Principle 6.2
Honor All Cards Properly Presented
Honoring All Visa Cards
Visa merchants may not refuse to accept a Visa product that is properly presented for payment, for example, on the basis that the card is foreign-issued (...)

(detailed sections below)

A U.S. Merchant that accepts all Visa Cards, or a Limited Acceptance category of Visa Cards, must accept any valid Visa Card issued by a non-U.S. Issuer, as specified in the Visa International Operating Regulations
ID#: 111011-010410-0008680

 

Mastercard Rules, 5.8.1. Honor all cards (...)

 

So, apparently, the only thing you need to remind merchant about if your foreign-issued card is not accepted is a fine for not complying with VIOR. I think it's like several thousand $$ now... :-)

 

But, again, speaking practically:

1) I have never faced anything like that for more than 5 years neither in the US, nor in any other countries I visited. Obviously that's not a guarantee, but I simply can't imagine such a situation. Mind sharing info about ANY particular store (e.g. in NYC area, if you know) that does not accept foreign-issued cards? I will be the first one to write to Visa if that's true :-)

2) How to practically implement such a measure? My card issued by Russian subsidiary of Citibank looks almost exactly as my U.S.-issued Citibank card (it's just a common corporate design). The only difference is in smallprint on the back of the card stating the phone number of customer service center. How can a merchant check that or is it expected that he or she is going to check every single card under the microscope? 

 

Same for merchant accounts. Mind sharing any specific examples of any of them openly communicating that they accept domestically-issued cards only?

Again, all above is valid for in-store purchases, not online ones which is exactly a different story... (your comment about AVS is absolutely right)

In my wallet now: Amex PRG NPSL, Amex BCE $15k $17k (thanks to recent CLI), Chase Freedom 11k, CSP $6k, Chase United ME $5k, Citi Dividend $5.6k, Discover It $4.5k and a handful of other cards...
TU Dec 2013 - 752Sep 2013 - 764 - new all time maximum

Obsolete data aboveCurrent TU - probably around ~810, only using a few Chase & BofA cards now, not applying for much until we buy a house
Message 5 of 6
bs6054
Valued Contributor

Re: Indian credit / debit cards can't be used in International stores/sites? any suggestion / advice


@mikka1 wrote:

2) How to practically implement such a measure? My card issued by Russian subsidiary of Citibank looks almost exactly as my U.S.-issued Citibank card (it's just a common corporate design). The only difference is in smallprint on the back of the card stating the phone number of customer service center. How can a merchant check that or is it expected that he or she is going to check every single card under the microscope? 

 


The first few digits uniquely identify the issuing bank, including country, so this could certainly be done in an automated fashion.  Whether it is or not is another question!

 

As you say, online is more likely to cause issues, especially if the web site can only accept local addresses (for no good reason).   My only rejection in a physical store was in the UK, where carfonewarehouse refused to accept my US card as it wasn't chip and pin, probably not really allowable by Visa either.  Then they charged me 10 pounds more for paying in cash!  (No choice that time, and now I have a chip and pin card in case I run into such things again!)

Message 6 of 6
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.