How to Safely Use Your Card While Traveling Abroad
The biggest threats to your card abroad aren't pickpockets but hotel Wi-Fi and rigged ATMs — and both are easy to guard against before you even board your flight.
The most common way travelers lose money isn't a stolen wallet — it's the combination of a random Wi-Fi network plus a payment page with no real security. The second most common scenario is an ATM with a skimmer installed in a tourist area. Both risks can be handled ahead of time, before you even leave home, once you know what to look for.
Split your cards: everyday vs. travel
The first and most effective rule: never pay for things abroad with your main card — the one holding your whole vacation budget or, worse, your salary.
Set up a separate card just for travel spending (a virtual card or a regular debit card) and keep only a few days' worth of cash on it, not your entire budget. If that card's details leak through a phishing site or a compromised terminal, the damage is capped at whatever's on that card — not your whole account. Topping it up is easy right from your phone through your banking app, so there's no need to withdraw large amounts of cash at unfamiliar ATMs.
The second benefit of a separate card is that it's much easier to freeze instantly without leaving yourself completely broke: your main card stays safe simply because it was never in your wallet at checkout.
Public Wi-Fi is the biggest source of card data leaks
Hotels, cafés, and airports are exactly where people type in their card number to pay for something, book a room, or get online. The problem is that on an open network — no password, or a password shared with every guest at the front desk — traffic between your phone and a website can potentially be seen by other devices on that same network. That includes your card details if the site itself uses weak encryption.
The rule is simple: any card transaction on public Wi-Fi should go through your mobile data, a banking app with its own encryption, or a secure connection you've already turned on beforehand. For a deeper look at which networks are riskiest and how to tell them apart, check out our guide on staying safe on public Wi-Fi in cafés, hotels, and airports — it covers exactly this scenario: paying and logging into your bank from someone else's network.
If you've already set up a secure connection on your phone and laptop beforehand, any payment goes through an encrypted tunnel, making it far harder for anyone to intercept your card number or an SMS code. For a step-by-step, one-time setup across all your devices, see How to Set Up a Secure Connection on All Your Devices.
ATMs abroad: what to check before you type your PIN
Skimming — a fake overlay attached to the card slot and keypad — is still the top way card data gets stolen in tourist areas. Before you withdraw cash, spend 20 seconds checking the machine:
- The keypad sticks out, wobbles, or is a different color from the rest of the machine.
- The card slot has an extra piece attached that wiggles or lifts slightly — factory parts don't move.
- There are no random stickers, mirrors, or add-ons nearby that could be hiding a tiny camera pointed at the keypad.
- The ATM is standing on the street or in a busy walkway rather than inside a bank branch — the risk is higher, so pick a machine inside a bank or a large shopping mall instead.
Cover the keypad with your free hand while entering your PIN — this blocks both hidden cameras and anyone standing "accidentally" too close. And here's the rule tourists trip up on most often: if a stranger offers to help you at the ATM or hints at your code, politely decline and never hand your card to anyone else, even a waiter or cashier, if there's a way to tap or insert it yourself.
Card readers in shops and restaurants can be rigged too
Another common scam involves a portable card reader that shows one amount on the screen but charges another, or one that applies an inflated currency conversion rate. Always double-check the amount on the terminal screen against your receipt or the price tag before entering your PIN. If the terminal asks whether you'd like to pay in your home currency instead of the local one — that's usually Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and it almost always comes with a worse exchange rate set by the merchant, not your bank. In most cases, it's cheaper to choose the local currency and let your own bank handle the conversion.
What your bank and the merchant can see about you online
When you pay online through a hotel or airport network, that network's provider can technically see which websites you visit — including your bank's site or a payment service — even if the card data itself is encrypted. That doesn't mean the provider is reading your card number or messages, but the mere fact that you visited your bank's site on an unfamiliar network is still extra information about you floating around. For more on exactly what a network provider can see and how to limit it, read Internet Privacy: What Your Provider Actually Knows About You.
Quick reference: risks and fixes
| Situation | Risk | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Paying over hotel Wi-Fi | Data intercepted on a shared network | Use mobile data or a secure connection |
| ATM on the street | Skimmer on the card slot | Check the keypad and slot, withdraw inside a bank |
| Card reader at a café | Wrong amount or bad exchange rate | Check the screen amount, pay in local currency |
| Using your main card abroad | Total loss of access to funds if leaked | Use a separate card with a limited balance |
| "Your bank" texts about a frozen card | Phishing | Don't click links — call the number on the back of your card |
Pre-trip checklist
- Set up a separate card for travel spending, and don't keep your whole budget on it.
- Turn on SMS or push notifications for every card transaction.
- Set up a secure connection on your phone and laptop ahead of time — at home, not at the airport.
- Save your bank's fraud hotline number somewhere separate from a photo of your card (not both in the same notes app).
- Check with your bank beforehand whether your card works in your destination country and what the ATM withdrawal fees look like.
If your card does get compromised
Call your bank using the number on the back of your card (not one from a text or email) and freeze the card immediately — that stops further charges faster than anything else you can do. Then check your transaction history in the banking app and dispute any charges you didn't make. This is where a separate travel card with a limited balance pays off again: while you're sorting things out with the bank, you still have full access to the rest of your money.
A few simple habits — a separate card, a 20-second ATM check, a secure connection on your devices, and a quick glance at the amount on the terminal screen — cover nearly every scenario travelers actually run into. You can set up a secure connection on all your devices once, before your trip, with a Larofly plan — see the details on the pricing page.