Backpackers warned over credit card problems

Complications with credit cards are a common occurrence on gap-year holiday, it has been claimed.

According to Tom Griffiths of gapyear.com, backpackers using a copy of parents' credit cards in far-flung locales, while these are also being used in the UK by their owners, often seems like fraud to credit card companies.

This often leads to credit card providers opting to block the card, causing cash flow problems for travellers, he claims.

Also a problem, Mr Griffiths said, is that when cards are used in a series of countries within a short timeframe, this can also mistakenly be interpreted by providers as a suspicious pattern of activity.

"The credit card company tries to contact them but obviously they're inaccessible, so their cards are being blocked. That's a big problem at the moment [for] backpackers," he said.

Research from gapyear.com found that the average spend for each gap year student stood at between £3,000-£4,000.

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