Argh, that definitely sucks. That's not how it should work :(
Some of that seems bank related: my Australian bank emails me fraud notifications, I can add international cell numbers for txt if desired. Their website / app lets me tick off individual countries I'm visiting, and log-in to update it if I change my travel plans. If your US bank is using SSN for verification, that's dodgy :(
I feel you though, and I still take a (small) cash reserve when I travel. But I also take backup preload cards: Travelex offers Cash Passport, and both Qantas & Virgin offer Mastercard tap-to-pay built-in to their Frequent Flyer card (which also earns points). All three support Japanese Yen natively, so should work in Japan, but China and Korea are probably a no-go.
Some countries suck, though. Denmark has many misconfigured payment systems that block overseas cards (they misinterpret "Address Verification Not Available" as a decline), and you probably don't want to use cards in countries with high skimmer fraud. So we're not cashless yet, no :)
Some of that seems bank related: my Australian bank emails me fraud notifications, I can add international cell numbers for txt if desired. Their website / app lets me tick off individual countries I'm visiting, and log-in to update it if I change my travel plans. If your US bank is using SSN for verification, that's dodgy :(
I feel you though, and I still take a (small) cash reserve when I travel. But I also take backup preload cards: Travelex offers Cash Passport, and both Qantas & Virgin offer Mastercard tap-to-pay built-in to their Frequent Flyer card (which also earns points). All three support Japanese Yen natively, so should work in Japan, but China and Korea are probably a no-go.
Some countries suck, though. Denmark has many misconfigured payment systems that block overseas cards (they misinterpret "Address Verification Not Available" as a decline), and you probably don't want to use cards in countries with high skimmer fraud. So we're not cashless yet, no :)