神马文学网出国后如何用好信用卡
来源：百度文库 编辑：神马文学网 时间：2024/04/19 18:44:12
来源Practical Traveler - Advice on Using Credit Cards While Traveling Abroad - NYTimescom
译者莫名和尚I WAS driving to the Los Angeles airport in April when apparently I did something suspicious: I stopped at a gas station and filled up the tank.
在我四月份开车去洛杉矶机场的时候，我做了件引起信用卡公司警觉的事：在路边的加油站加油。
By the time I returned the rental car and got to my gate, I had a fraud alert message from my credit card company, U.S. Bank. Since I don’t own a car and rarely buy gas, it seems that $13 fill-up raised a red flag.
等我加好油坐进租来的汽车的时候，我收到了我的信用卡发卡公司——美国银行的一条防欺诈短信。因为我自己没车也很少加油，所以刚加了13美元的汽油银行就注意到了。
Such is the state of credit card security, a continuing battle between card issuers and criminals who steal account numbers, with consumers caught in the fray. Whether travelers are more likely to become victims of credit card fraud is debatable, but we’re certainly more likely to get tripped up by efforts to combat fraud, especially overseas.
这就是现在信用卡的安全级别。防止信用卡欺诈成了发卡行和欺诈犯之间永无休止的战争，而消费者被夹在了中间。持卡人外出旅行时是否更容易受到信用卡欺诈值得商榷，但可以肯定的是，旅途中更多的麻烦来自发卡行的反欺诈，尤其是你出国旅行的时候。
Here are some things to watch out for if you plan on paying with plastic, which isn’t quite as widely accepted as the ad campaigns for credit cards would have you believe.
下面就是一些关于持卡消费的建议。同时你也会发现，信用卡也不是铺天盖地的广告里吹的那么灵通。
Avoiding a Freeze on Your Account
如何避免账户被冻结
Most travelers know it’s a good idea to call your credit card company before a trip to a foreign country, so your purchases in Bangkok or Barcelona don’t trigger a freeze on your account. Banks rely on antifraud software that monitors customers’ spending patterns, which means that any time you stray from your usual habits — like buying groceries in another state instead of at a store in your home ZIP code — your bank might become concerned.
大多数持卡人都知道在出国之前告知发卡行，以免自己在曼谷或巴塞罗那的消费冻结账户。银行利用反欺诈软件来监控持卡人的消费习惯。这意味着什么时候你改变了习惯，比如在离开你居住地的另外一个州买了点吃的，你的发卡行可能就会警觉。
I was surprised that a cheap gas purchase in California could also freeze my account, so I called U.S. Bank to find out if travelers need to start alerting their banks about their domestic travels, which seemed like overkill to me.
我很惊讶在加州买了点汽油就会把我的账户冻结，所以我打电话给美国银行询问持卡人在国内旅行前是否需要告知银行，这对我来说有点过分了。
It probably is, said Dave Leiker, a senior vice president with U.S. Bank. He told me that besides watching for unusual spending patterns, banks also monitor where criminals use stolen cards, places like automated payment kiosks in metropolitan areas.
“或许是的。”美国银行高级副总裁Dave Leiker答道。他还告诉我银行除了记录持卡人的消费习惯，还会监控罪犯在哪刷偷来的信用卡，通常是大城市里的自动收货亭。
“We may have been seeing a trend where the bad guys were out there using stolen credit cards at gas pumps,” he said.
“可能会有越来越多的欺诈犯在加油站刷卡。”他说。
That would explain why I didn’t get a fraud call when I bought gas more recently in rural Pennsylvania. But it also reinforces an important point about traveling with plastic: carry more than one card, in case one is declined.
这就能解释为什么我最近在宾夕法尼亚州农村加油时没有收到防欺诈警告。但同时更说明一点：出行时最好多带几张卡，以防一张卡不能用。
Overseas, it can be much more of a hassle to unfreeze a card, especially if you don’t have a cellphone with international service.
在国外想要解冻信用卡要麻烦得多，特别是你的手机没开通国际通话服务的时候。
Rejection of Cards Abroad
出国后卡不能用
For globe-trotting travelers, another issue is that many countries in Europe, as well as Japan, Canada, Mexico and other nations, have adopted a type of credit card that has a chip and requires customers to enter a PIN instead of the ones with a magnetic stripe on the back that we still use in the United States.
对满世界跑的游客来说，另一个问题就是欧洲很多国家、日本、加拿大、墨西哥等国使用的是一种带芯片的信用卡，并且消费时需输入个人身份号码。而我们美国使用的是背面带磁条的卡。
Merchants that accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express are supposed to let customers pay with either type of card. But employees at some retailers outside the United States don’t always know what to do with the magnetic version.
在支持维萨信用卡、万事达信用卡和美国运通信用卡的商户一般两种卡都能刷。但并不是所有国外零售店的雇员都知道该怎么处理带磁条的信用卡。
There are also automated kiosks that accept only the “chip and PIN” cards, particularly in European train stations, parking garages, gas stations and some tollbooths. In those cases, Americans with magnetic stripe cards usually have to wait in line to pay with cash or have a clerk swipe their cards. Travelers say those lines can be long, which is especially frustrating if you’re trying to catch a train. And at unattended tollbooths, you may get stuck if you don’t have coins you can pay with instead.
同样，有的自动售货亭只支持“芯片密码”类信用卡。这类售货亭在欧洲的火车站、停车场、加油站和过路收费亭很常见。那样的话，持磁条卡的美国人只好排队用现金付账或者人工刷卡。驴友们会告诉你那些队伍有时候很长，如果你急着赶火车的话就比较糟糕了。在无人过路收费站，你要是没带硬币的话可能就被卡在那了。
So how common is this problem? In a study last September, the research company Aite Group found that nearly half of American cardholders who have traveled abroad in the past few years have had some problem using a debit or credit card, and 16 percent said their card was rejected because of this issue with magnetic stripe acceptance overseas.
此类问题究竟有多普遍呢？去年九月，调查公司Aite集团进行了一项研究，发现在过去几年中近一半的美国持卡人出国游时在使用借记卡或信用卡时遇到过麻烦，16%的持卡人声称自己的信用卡因为类型不符而不能使用。
“I think many cardholders assume when they travel abroad that it is much like being in the United States,” said Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst with Aite Group, pointing out that in addition to the chip versus magnetic stripe problem, merchants in other parts of the world often have higher minimum-purchase requirements to use a credit card or simply don’t accept the cards because they don’t want to pay the fees that card companies charge retailers.
Aite集团的一位高级分析师 Ron Shevlin 说：“我想可能很多持卡人会认为在国外刷卡消费和国内别无二致。”他还指出，除了芯片卡和磁条卡的差异带来的问题之外，国外很多商家通常会有刷卡最低消费限制，或者因为不愿意支付发卡行的手续费而拒绝信用卡。
He also suggested checking your credit limit before a trip, since banks have reduced credit limits for some cardholders; travel expenses can push up against those maximums.
他还建议出行前检查您的信用额度，因为发卡行可能降低了某些持卡人的信用额度；旅途中的消费也会让你不知不觉把卡刷爆。
Chip Cards in the United States?
美国何时有芯片卡？
As for whether banks plan to offer chip and PIN credit cards to their American customers, Mr. Shevlin said the cost of issuing new cards is a hurdle, especially given the banking industry’s other financial challenges.
至于银行是否会在美国发行芯片类信用卡， Shevlin 先生说，新卡发行的成本太高，而现在银行业并不景气。
“It should be more of a concern among card issuers than it is,” he said. “But I would not expect to see a lot of movement before the end of 2011.”
“发卡行应该多关注这个问题。”他说，“但我想在2011年年底之前不会有什么大动作。”
There is one financial institution that is moving more quickly: the United Nations Federal Credit Union, which plans to offer its members credit cards with both a magnetic stripe and a chip beginning in October.
还是有家金融机构跑在了前头。美国联邦信用合作社计划在十月份给持卡人提供磁条和芯片两种类型的信用卡。
Merrill Halpern, card services manager for the credit union, said that with Canada and Mexico now embracing chip and PIN cards, along with Europe and many other parts of the world, it was time to make the switch. Another motivation is that the chip and PIN cards are more secure because there is a unique key encrypted in every card, whereas magnetic stripe cards are relatively easy to clone — that is, to steal the data and copy it onto another card.
信用合作社的信用卡部经理Merrill Halpern介绍说，随着加拿大和墨西哥加入欧洲和其它国家的芯片密码卡阵营，我们也该转变了。另外一个原因就是芯片密码卡更安全。它每张卡都有不同的加密密码，而磁条卡相对更容易仿制——窃取数据并复制到另一张卡上。
“It’s going to save us money on fraud losses,” Mr. Halpern said. “The trend seems to be that more fraud is coming to the U.S. because we’re the one last holdout in magnetic stripe cards.”
“这样会减少信用卡欺诈带来的损失，” Halpern先生说。“有种趋势是美国会发生越来越多的信用卡欺诈案件，因为只有我们还在使用磁条卡。”
Despite that concern, the major credit card companies do not have imminent plans to offer chip and PIN cards to their American customers, even though they provide them to cardholders abroad. When I asked about this topic, representatives from Visa and MasterCard e-mailed me statements saying they’re working with issuers to evaluate the feasibility of offering cards with the chip technology to customers who travel internationally.
这确实很值得关注。但大型信用卡公司近期都没有在美国发行芯片卡的计划，虽然它们在国外会发行。当我就此事询问维萨和万事达卡公司时，它们的代表给我回复电子邮件说，他们正在就向出国的持卡人提供芯片卡进行可行性评估。
Desiree Fish, a spokeswoman for American Express, said the company doesn’t plan to add the chip technology to cards issued in the United States at this time. But she emphasized that customers should be able to use their magnetic stripe cards abroad, even if a clerk tells them they cannot.
美国运通公司的发言人Desiree Fish说，运通公司现在没有给美国的信用卡添加芯片的计划。但她强调说消费者在国外应该能用磁条卡，甚至当店员告诉你不能用的时候。
“A card member can insist that, yes, in fact, they can swipe the card,” Ms. Fish said.
“持卡人可以坚持这么做，是的，磁条卡的确能刷。” Fish 女士说。
Of course, communicating with store employees who may not speak English isn’t always easy, which is why carrying plenty of cash is a good backup, especially in rural areas and developing countries.
当然，和不会英语的店员交流起来会有点困难，这也是为什么带上足够的现金备用总是个不错的选择，特别是你在农村或是一些发展中国家的时候。
American Express, Visa and MasterCard also suggested that customers report any trouble they have using a magnetic stripe card abroad. Taking the time to make that call may help pressure the industry to come up with a solution for this problem.
美国运通、维萨和万事达信用卡公司同时建议持卡人在国外使用磁条卡时若有麻烦应及时报告。花点时间打一通电话可能会促使他们解决这个问题吧。
译者莫名和尚I WAS driving to the Los Angeles airport in April when apparently I did something suspicious: I stopped at a gas station and filled up the tank.
在我四月份开车去洛杉矶机场的时候，我做了件引起信用卡公司警觉的事：在路边的加油站加油。
By the time I returned the rental car and got to my gate, I had a fraud alert message from my credit card company, U.S. Bank. Since I don’t own a car and rarely buy gas, it seems that $13 fill-up raised a red flag.
等我加好油坐进租来的汽车的时候，我收到了我的信用卡发卡公司——美国银行的一条防欺诈短信。因为我自己没车也很少加油，所以刚加了13美元的汽油银行就注意到了。
Such is the state of credit card security, a continuing battle between card issuers and criminals who steal account numbers, with consumers caught in the fray. Whether travelers are more likely to become victims of credit card fraud is debatable, but we’re certainly more likely to get tripped up by efforts to combat fraud, especially overseas.
这就是现在信用卡的安全级别。防止信用卡欺诈成了发卡行和欺诈犯之间永无休止的战争，而消费者被夹在了中间。持卡人外出旅行时是否更容易受到信用卡欺诈值得商榷，但可以肯定的是，旅途中更多的麻烦来自发卡行的反欺诈，尤其是你出国旅行的时候。
Here are some things to watch out for if you plan on paying with plastic, which isn’t quite as widely accepted as the ad campaigns for credit cards would have you believe.
下面就是一些关于持卡消费的建议。同时你也会发现，信用卡也不是铺天盖地的广告里吹的那么灵通。
Avoiding a Freeze on Your Account
如何避免账户被冻结
Most travelers know it’s a good idea to call your credit card company before a trip to a foreign country, so your purchases in Bangkok or Barcelona don’t trigger a freeze on your account. Banks rely on antifraud software that monitors customers’ spending patterns, which means that any time you stray from your usual habits — like buying groceries in another state instead of at a store in your home ZIP code — your bank might become concerned.
大多数持卡人都知道在出国之前告知发卡行，以免自己在曼谷或巴塞罗那的消费冻结账户。银行利用反欺诈软件来监控持卡人的消费习惯。这意味着什么时候你改变了习惯，比如在离开你居住地的另外一个州买了点吃的，你的发卡行可能就会警觉。
I was surprised that a cheap gas purchase in California could also freeze my account, so I called U.S. Bank to find out if travelers need to start alerting their banks about their domestic travels, which seemed like overkill to me.
我很惊讶在加州买了点汽油就会把我的账户冻结，所以我打电话给美国银行询问持卡人在国内旅行前是否需要告知银行，这对我来说有点过分了。
It probably is, said Dave Leiker, a senior vice president with U.S. Bank. He told me that besides watching for unusual spending patterns, banks also monitor where criminals use stolen cards, places like automated payment kiosks in metropolitan areas.
“或许是的。”美国银行高级副总裁Dave Leiker答道。他还告诉我银行除了记录持卡人的消费习惯，还会监控罪犯在哪刷偷来的信用卡，通常是大城市里的自动收货亭。
“We may have been seeing a trend where the bad guys were out there using stolen credit cards at gas pumps,” he said.
“可能会有越来越多的欺诈犯在加油站刷卡。”他说。
That would explain why I didn’t get a fraud call when I bought gas more recently in rural Pennsylvania. But it also reinforces an important point about traveling with plastic: carry more than one card, in case one is declined.
这就能解释为什么我最近在宾夕法尼亚州农村加油时没有收到防欺诈警告。但同时更说明一点：出行时最好多带几张卡，以防一张卡不能用。
Overseas, it can be much more of a hassle to unfreeze a card, especially if you don’t have a cellphone with international service.
在国外想要解冻信用卡要麻烦得多，特别是你的手机没开通国际通话服务的时候。
Rejection of Cards Abroad
出国后卡不能用
For globe-trotting travelers, another issue is that many countries in Europe, as well as Japan, Canada, Mexico and other nations, have adopted a type of credit card that has a chip and requires customers to enter a PIN instead of the ones with a magnetic stripe on the back that we still use in the United States.
对满世界跑的游客来说，另一个问题就是欧洲很多国家、日本、加拿大、墨西哥等国使用的是一种带芯片的信用卡，并且消费时需输入个人身份号码。而我们美国使用的是背面带磁条的卡。
Merchants that accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express are supposed to let customers pay with either type of card. But employees at some retailers outside the United States don’t always know what to do with the magnetic version.
在支持维萨信用卡、万事达信用卡和美国运通信用卡的商户一般两种卡都能刷。但并不是所有国外零售店的雇员都知道该怎么处理带磁条的信用卡。
There are also automated kiosks that accept only the “chip and PIN” cards, particularly in European train stations, parking garages, gas stations and some tollbooths. In those cases, Americans with magnetic stripe cards usually have to wait in line to pay with cash or have a clerk swipe their cards. Travelers say those lines can be long, which is especially frustrating if you’re trying to catch a train. And at unattended tollbooths, you may get stuck if you don’t have coins you can pay with instead.
同样，有的自动售货亭只支持“芯片密码”类信用卡。这类售货亭在欧洲的火车站、停车场、加油站和过路收费亭很常见。那样的话，持磁条卡的美国人只好排队用现金付账或者人工刷卡。驴友们会告诉你那些队伍有时候很长，如果你急着赶火车的话就比较糟糕了。在无人过路收费站，你要是没带硬币的话可能就被卡在那了。
So how common is this problem? In a study last September, the research company Aite Group found that nearly half of American cardholders who have traveled abroad in the past few years have had some problem using a debit or credit card, and 16 percent said their card was rejected because of this issue with magnetic stripe acceptance overseas.
此类问题究竟有多普遍呢？去年九月，调查公司Aite集团进行了一项研究，发现在过去几年中近一半的美国持卡人出国游时在使用借记卡或信用卡时遇到过麻烦，16%的持卡人声称自己的信用卡因为类型不符而不能使用。
“I think many cardholders assume when they travel abroad that it is much like being in the United States,” said Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst with Aite Group, pointing out that in addition to the chip versus magnetic stripe problem, merchants in other parts of the world often have higher minimum-purchase requirements to use a credit card or simply don’t accept the cards because they don’t want to pay the fees that card companies charge retailers.
Aite集团的一位高级分析师 Ron Shevlin 说：“我想可能很多持卡人会认为在国外刷卡消费和国内别无二致。”他还指出，除了芯片卡和磁条卡的差异带来的问题之外，国外很多商家通常会有刷卡最低消费限制，或者因为不愿意支付发卡行的手续费而拒绝信用卡。
He also suggested checking your credit limit before a trip, since banks have reduced credit limits for some cardholders; travel expenses can push up against those maximums.
他还建议出行前检查您的信用额度，因为发卡行可能降低了某些持卡人的信用额度；旅途中的消费也会让你不知不觉把卡刷爆。
Chip Cards in the United States?
美国何时有芯片卡？
As for whether banks plan to offer chip and PIN credit cards to their American customers, Mr. Shevlin said the cost of issuing new cards is a hurdle, especially given the banking industry’s other financial challenges.
至于银行是否会在美国发行芯片类信用卡， Shevlin 先生说，新卡发行的成本太高，而现在银行业并不景气。
“It should be more of a concern among card issuers than it is,” he said. “But I would not expect to see a lot of movement before the end of 2011.”
“发卡行应该多关注这个问题。”他说，“但我想在2011年年底之前不会有什么大动作。”
There is one financial institution that is moving more quickly: the United Nations Federal Credit Union, which plans to offer its members credit cards with both a magnetic stripe and a chip beginning in October.
还是有家金融机构跑在了前头。美国联邦信用合作社计划在十月份给持卡人提供磁条和芯片两种类型的信用卡。
Merrill Halpern, card services manager for the credit union, said that with Canada and Mexico now embracing chip and PIN cards, along with Europe and many other parts of the world, it was time to make the switch. Another motivation is that the chip and PIN cards are more secure because there is a unique key encrypted in every card, whereas magnetic stripe cards are relatively easy to clone — that is, to steal the data and copy it onto another card.
信用合作社的信用卡部经理Merrill Halpern介绍说，随着加拿大和墨西哥加入欧洲和其它国家的芯片密码卡阵营，我们也该转变了。另外一个原因就是芯片密码卡更安全。它每张卡都有不同的加密密码，而磁条卡相对更容易仿制——窃取数据并复制到另一张卡上。
“It’s going to save us money on fraud losses,” Mr. Halpern said. “The trend seems to be that more fraud is coming to the U.S. because we’re the one last holdout in magnetic stripe cards.”
“这样会减少信用卡欺诈带来的损失，” Halpern先生说。“有种趋势是美国会发生越来越多的信用卡欺诈案件，因为只有我们还在使用磁条卡。”
Despite that concern, the major credit card companies do not have imminent plans to offer chip and PIN cards to their American customers, even though they provide them to cardholders abroad. When I asked about this topic, representatives from Visa and MasterCard e-mailed me statements saying they’re working with issuers to evaluate the feasibility of offering cards with the chip technology to customers who travel internationally.
这确实很值得关注。但大型信用卡公司近期都没有在美国发行芯片卡的计划，虽然它们在国外会发行。当我就此事询问维萨和万事达卡公司时，它们的代表给我回复电子邮件说，他们正在就向出国的持卡人提供芯片卡进行可行性评估。
Desiree Fish, a spokeswoman for American Express, said the company doesn’t plan to add the chip technology to cards issued in the United States at this time. But she emphasized that customers should be able to use their magnetic stripe cards abroad, even if a clerk tells them they cannot.
美国运通公司的发言人Desiree Fish说，运通公司现在没有给美国的信用卡添加芯片的计划。但她强调说消费者在国外应该能用磁条卡，甚至当店员告诉你不能用的时候。
“A card member can insist that, yes, in fact, they can swipe the card,” Ms. Fish said.
“持卡人可以坚持这么做，是的，磁条卡的确能刷。” Fish 女士说。
Of course, communicating with store employees who may not speak English isn’t always easy, which is why carrying plenty of cash is a good backup, especially in rural areas and developing countries.
当然，和不会英语的店员交流起来会有点困难，这也是为什么带上足够的现金备用总是个不错的选择，特别是你在农村或是一些发展中国家的时候。
American Express, Visa and MasterCard also suggested that customers report any trouble they have using a magnetic stripe card abroad. Taking the time to make that call may help pressure the industry to come up with a solution for this problem.
美国运通、维萨和万事达信用卡公司同时建议持卡人在国外使用磁条卡时若有麻烦应及时报告。花点时间打一通电话可能会促使他们解决这个问题吧。