I just posted this on some topic in the Chiang Mai forum but thought more people might be interested here. I recently received an email from my Citi Premier card:

 

Based on your airline ticket purchase(s) on your Citi® card, it appears that you're travelling soon. To make things easier for you there's no need to contact us regarding your upcoming trip.

 

Has anyone else noticed similar tracking of your travel purchases by your credit card company?

Obviously your credit card company know all your purchases (not exactly "tracking").

 

Seems like it's a service they are offering, recording you upcoming travel so you don't have to inform them.

 

I have always notified my cc companies of my travel plans as it saves a lot of grief when their fraud prevention department puts a block on your card. In this case I would be curious as to know how much Citi knows about my travel itinerary. 

My UK bank has a specific section in their online banking in which to tell them of my travel plans (dates, countries). If I do this there is never any problem with the card being temporarily blocked for unusual usage.

 

I dont see how the bank can know any more than the cost of the ticket and possibly the airline if the ticket was bought directly and not via an agent. Car hire purchase would give a similar indication of intended travel some time in the next year, but that's about all.

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Obviously your credit card company know all your purchases (not exactly "tracking").

Seems like it's a service they are offering, recording you upcoming travel so you don't have to inform them.

 

I see no reason for the travel dates to be part of the info provided to the CC company/bank. I often buy tickets a year in advance so "upcoming" is very vague. I currently have tickets to the UK for this year, and for 2018. Even if they knew the dates and destinations my bank would not necessarily know in which order I would be using the return halves, so not easy for them to know where I would be at any one time.

 

I suspect that this is just a blanket setting that allows for unusual international use if a ticket has been purchased. As such it seems much less secure than my own bank's system which limits the effect to specific countries and dates. I dont care about possible loss as my (non-Thai) cards are 100% covered against any fraud or loss, but I do care about the card being blocked and not being able to use it.