At Travel.SE, we have an HNQ: How to make my credit card "less" secure for travel? about how to reduce the number of false credit card declines when traveling abroad.
The current top answer suggests (among other ideas):
When you arrive in a new country/region, open your banks mobile app and login. Ideally do this whilst connected to Wifi rather than a roaming mobile connection, and if your banks app requests it, allow location access. At least one bank uses your location from their app as an indication that you are in a country/region.
Now, I do see how this could help the bank's fraud detector understand that the card holder is physically in the country in which they are trying to later use their credit card. What I am wondering about: I make it a point to not open my mobile banking app in a network I do not trust, and wonder whether this advice opens the door to malicious actors.
Is merely opening and logging on to a mobile banking app in an untrusted Wifi network - optionally allowing location access - an appreciable security risk for J. Random User?
