It's bloody ridiculous isn't it! We both told them we'd be going to Philadelphia, Washington DC and New York and probably a couple of places in between. It was fine in Philly & DC, then it must have been the stops in Lancaster & Gettysburg that did it. Though despite us both making purchases on our cards, only mine got stopped. You'd also have thought the person making the decision could have looked at a map and seen Gettysburg is in between DC and New York!
It really annoyed me because we were running short of cash and I could've done with my debit card! Especially for the flight home which turned into a disaster, needless to say US Airways have joined Halifax, Reel Cinemas and York City Council on my sh|t list.

The best I ever heard on that was a freelance war correspondent who had his Amex declined at an airport while trying to flee an African country that had just exploded into civil war. He managed to blag a flight home on a British troop transport that had been flown in to evacuate our embassy. Once back in London, he contacted Amex to find out what the fook had gone wrong. It transpired that they'd put a block on his card because of "irregular activity" surrounding the purchase of a £5k diamond ring, shortly before he left the UK. The stupid bugger had failed to notify Amex that he'd got engaged and buying £5k engagement rings wasn't the sort of monthly activity that he regularly indulged in.

This also happened to us two years ago in France - over a £2 transaction! Not only did they stop the card, when we rang up to find out why they wouldn't tell us! We were very worried that someone had cleaned out our account, just what you want when you're a 1000 miles from home. When we finally sorted it because my son went around to our house we discovered the reason we were relieved the account was in credit but pretty annoyed over the reason.
I wrote to complain, but got not response. My wife had earlier written to complain about poor service in the branch and go no response.
We switched to the Halifax. Our bank at the time? The one that's currently advertising how friendly and local and cosy it is the Yorkshire - I'd been with since it was the Yorkshire Penny Bank. They finally responded after about three months when they noticed no activity in our current account! However, if the Co-op open a branch near us or take over a Lloyds branch near us I'm seriously thinking of switching again.

Check for yourself on [url=https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S5811784IrAGooglemap[/url

Lovely both our C&G that has our ISA and the LloydsTSB that has my current account are being sold.
Saves me a hell of a lot of hassle changing over on my own.

Although NatWest are generally awful I would say their charge card is brilliant. Never had problems when abroad. also their fraud detection system is stunning. They have detected frauds immediately on a couple of occasions. They were overzealous once but with good reason. I bought a suit about 4pm in Luton and flew to Geneva where for some reason the hotel wanted the full week charged upfront for a couple of rooms, so a couple of thousand. They 'phoned home first thing Monday am to check things were OK and Mrs D got a message to me who told them all was OK. They did not stop the card though. I think their card service is great (although expensive).

Mrs D had the ideal opportunity there to have your hotel bill payment stopped, and the return flight cancelled.

I bet she's been kicking herself ever since.

It was obviously the "buying a suit in Luton" that alerted them, unless it was a shell suit you bought.

In 2006 I bought a new car I asked the salesman how to pay - he said transfer the cash into your current account and pay with your debit card. We transferred the money. I went to Leeds to change the insurance and left an hour's cover in order to drive to the dealers in order to change cars. I gave the salesman my debit card and he came back ten minutes later and said "it's been declined" I rang the Yorkshire Bank and was told the money was there in cash if I wanted to come and get it. Problem, I was in Cleckheaton and the money was in Leeds, and of course since the insurance on my former car was now invalid I had no way of getting to it. I solved the problem but I was pretty p!ssed at the time with Yorkshire Bank.

Got it in Debenhams. Only one I've ever had from there. Was a nice suit, got it cheap in the sale but as I was in a hurry (wanted it for the trip and had run out of time) it was always rather tight! Nice suit, good price the fact it didn't really fit didn't seem to matter.

Oh come on, plenty of people wear suits in Luton, just have a wander round the magistrates court on a Monday morning.