Just thought I'd pass on a recent experience - and brag a bit in case anyone missed it :blush:

Last week, I went out to buy a new computer. I handed over my Mastercard and I could see the sales guy having trouble at his computer. Finally he told me the card had been rejected. I thought it might have a $2000 per transaction limit so I told him to try that and put the balance on Visa (which I knew was dangerously close to the limit) He ignored my instructions and put the whole thing on Visa - I couldn't believe it!

Anyway, my MC wouldn't even buy me a pack of gum after that and I was busy for the next few days and didn't have time to check it out. When I finally sat down to look, to my surprise, I discovered that while my Visa had been kissing the limit, they increased the limit by more than double what it would have taken to accommodate the computer purchase, and MC had immediately suspended my card because when the clerk had tried the first time to put through the transaction, they had sent him a message to call them - the card is usually used for small purchases <$100 and the price of a computer was flagged as out of line - Instead of calling he tried to put the transaction through again, so to protect me, they suspended the card.

MC security immediately called me and left a message, but I was busy over at Mom's so I didn't check for messages etc and missed it.

So I guess it depends - which card company gives better service??

Take care, Margaret

Had a similar type of experience recently when buying 2 pairs of skis, they came to about £1000, and this was outside of the kind of purchases I make, so MC asked the sales assistant to ask me some security questions before they would guarantee payment. I guess I'd rather they did this than just pay out. As a postscript to this, one of the pair of skis was trashed by United Airlines on the way to Vail, my wife did'nt even get to ski on them. Getting UA to accept liability took 6 days of grief and hassle, then another 6 days for them to replace them and get them out to us at Vail. So she got to ski on her new skis for 1 day out of her vacation. We're still trying to get compensation for the cost of hiring skis for 12 days. Don't hold out much hope now. Conclusion, don't fly UA if you have any valuable luggage.