My New Altitude Reserve Card Was Rejected by a Hotel Due to No Signature Strip—Now What?

It’s a nightmare scenario for many as they travel abroad: that the one and only credit card in their wallet has been rejected. Undoubtedly, a credit card can be rejected for a whole slew of different reasons. Some may make absolutely no sense in your view.

In the case of a hotel, which needs your credit card details on file so that you can be charged after the fact for room service or anything else you add to your tab during your stay, a chat with the hotel manager may not be enough to get them to accept your credit card. Either way, I’ll react to a recent Reddit post involving a person that suffered a pretty awful experience with their brand-new Altitude Reserve Card. In short, the hotel turned down the card because it lacked a signature strip.

Indeed, this isn’t the only credit card out there without a strip. In fact, more cards could go without in the coming years. Like with taking away ports and headphone jacks on laptops, there’s probably going to be a bit of inconvenience and frustration from taking away older technologies that businesses may have yet to keep up with. In any case, one should expect that not all businesses have kept with the times. That’s why having a backup plan is so key, especially for those who travel abroad often.

In any case, let’s attempt to learn from this frustrated Reddit user’s experience so you don’t ever have to find yourself in a similar situation, which may not have easy answers.

Try a debit card, cash, Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal?

If your credit card gets rejected, it’s always a good idea to have a debit card or cash handy, especially if you’re on travel. Digital payment solutions, like Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal, may be seen as a “plan B” payment method if there’s no cash handy, and one has left their debit card at home.

As always, though, there’s no guarantee that a hotel will take such high-tech payment solutions. If a hotel doesn’t want to serve you because your credit card doesn’t have a signature strip, odds are such app-based payment methods also won’t cut it.

Of course, the last-resort solution would be to take your business with another hotel, preferably a chain hotel that’s adopted all the latest technologies. Though, getting a room without a reservation could prove tricky. As such, it’s best to be prepared with “Plan B” options next time around as there are a wider range of factors that could cause some establishments to not take a certain card.

Just carry a spare credit card and save yourself the hassle.

This one is a must for just about everyone, in my view. A second card, preferably with a different issuer, could save you when your primary card fails to go through. If one advanced card doesn’t have a signature strip, ensure your second one does. As an added plus, you may also be able to get a better credit score by holding onto more than one card, given your utilization rate would be lower given the sum of credit limits from two cards.

In any case, it’s always wise to leave home with more than one card in case the first comes up short for one reason or another. While the bad experience may be enough to cause some to ditch the card, I’d argue that it makes more sense to hang onto it while having a backup.

As premier as some credit cards are, such as the Altitude Reserve card, some may just come up short compared to the good, old-fashioned ones, like in the case of the Reddit user. Some cards, though prestigious, may just be ahead of their time for many businesses.

That’s a lesson that is best learned in the easy way.

The post My New Altitude Reserve Card Was Rejected by a Hotel Due to No Signature Strip—Now What? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..