On two different occasions we've had our credit card become useless while traveling. That meant our auto-pay accounts would fail on next attempt to pay our monthly bills.
On both occasions we were more than 1000 miles from home. And of course that means we were more than 1000 miles from the replacement card.
Fortunately, we had another credit card. Unfortunately, the seemingly-simple act of changing a credit card wasn't as easy as it should be. That's the day we learned, for example, that one of our auto-pay systems doesn't work with our laptop's operating system and browser for a credit-card change. And we never did figure out how to change another one of them online.
So if you take longer trips and have auto-pay accounts being paid by credit card, you may want to:
- Have at least one other active credit card available.
- Before leaving, make a list of your auto-pay accounts with the info you'll need to get into your online accounts (passwords, security questions, etc.) plus phone numbers and any procedures you may need to get to the customer service agent for your auto-pay accounts. And of course protect your password and security info, perhaps with a password-protected file on your laptop and emergency-info thumb drive. And figure out how you're going to get your info if your laptop is stolen or fails. (We have a paper copy in a safe place).
- If you have concerns about the usability or the security of the online system or the security of your link to it, you may want to call customer service instead (and that of course has its own challenges).
