Quote Originally Posted by ggiese View Post

Also - as a heads up - The bank may just end up taking the loss (if they like you), but be cautioned that banks do not like taking losses... Your bank may be frowning on you making purchases like cigarettes or cigars in Eastern Europe. Kind of a two edged sword - one being that you're making purchases in a very high risk environment and also that you're purchasing tobacco products outside the US. They COULD (not that they will) refuse to reimburse you the losses. If they do reimburse, they will try to charge that back to the retailer that took the bogus credit card (who is likely going to object because they want their money). If that's true - and the bank eats it - they might not be so willing to do it next time.


Make no mistake - your bank loves you. I've never heard of a bank willingly eat the losses on a transaction with a debit card. I've heard of customers fighting a suspicious charge and winning, but never in the manner you've described. Credit cards, however, reverse charges all the time. We never use the debit card online - ever.