My credit card keeps declining in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I have enough money on there and all international transactions are activated - what do I do?
I used a Canadian Visa credit card and it got declined in both Banja Luka and Sarajevo even though I had no blocks or issues back home. After talking to my bank, they said some ATMs in Bosnia don’t process international cards consistently, especially if the card uses 3D Secure or extra authentication. I withdrew cash using my debit instead and relied on that. Best to carry a mix of payment options here.
Ran into the same issue in Mostar with my Amex. Worked flawlessly in Croatia, but most places in Bosnia didn’t accept itsome hostels, restaurants, even larger hotels. Turns out Amex has limited acceptance here. Eventually switched to my backup Mastercard and used a Nova Banka ATM with no problem. If your card keeps getting declined, try a different ATM brand or card type.
I had this happen with my Chase Sapphire in Sarajevo a few weeks ago. The card was fine everywhere else, but ATMs in Bosnia kept declining it even with plenty of credit available. I called the bank and they said the transaction was flagged because the ATM didn’t support chip-and-pin properly. Switched to using ATMs from UniCredit and it finally worked. Might just be a compatibility thing with the local network.