I tried to make a purchase yesterday using my Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card on the Air China website. Unfortunately, the transaction was declined. Within minutes I had an email from Chase alerting me to the potential fraud. The email said a transaction was declined in Beijing, Ireland. Ireland? Okay, maybe Air China uses a processor in Ireland – I know from my day job that there are several very large processors in Ireland. Not the case in this instance. Through some research I was able to find that Air China uses a processor and gateway located in Mainland China.
So, why does Chase think Beijing is in Ireland? It could be that they’ve got a database issue (I deal with those all day long so I know they’re possible) or, Air China’s merchant account is labeled wrong (given my past experiences with them, that would not surprise me.)
But honestly, I have no clue what the actual answer. In any case, it gave me a good laugh today.
Best to keep those pesky foreign profits outside your country sometimes