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Virgin Islands Based Credit Cards and Shopping

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Van Blake-Coleman Realty, St. Thomas/www.talk-to-Tanya.com 1-16940-1B

Whether you are shopping in the Virgin Islands, online or on the mainland one thing that is essential is some form of monitory exchange and many of us choose to use credit or debit cards.

Since moving to the Virgin Islands in February of 2004 my credit cards have had a billing address of the Virgin Islands, since I live and work there.  When shopping online you often run into the obstacles that the drop down menu does not offer the option of putting in the "Virgin Islands" as the state for your billing address and many companies will not ship to the Virgin Islands or want to charge exorbitant rates for shipping here.  We are a territory of the United States and have U.S. Postal service just like New York City or Chicago, Illinois. To complicate things a little further, many residence have P.O. Boxes because while we have the U.S. Postal Service, many of the roads are not marked with their names, homes are often not visibly numbered and locations can be remote, so the delivery of mail to individual homes is not, in large part, undertaken by the Post Office. Condos can be an exception to this with centralized mail boxes.  Even if delivery is not an issue and you want to send gifts to someone on the mainland there are vendors online who will not ship merchandise or do business with you, if the paying credit card or debit card has a billing address in the Virgin Islands.

Today, I was trying to purchase (in the Atlanta, GA area) a gift for my son who lives in New York. The store did not have the item in stock so I asked if they could order it. They assured me that was not a problem and they would have it shipped to New York. The clerk found a store near his home and was all set to process the order when the issue of the drop down box did not allow for the state of the  "Virgin Islands" U.S. or otherwise. I was a bit stressed, it was a birthday gift and I had been to several store trying to find the item and could not find it in store anywhere. Fortunately, the clerk was diligent. She called their head quarters and was able to place the order for me. I was relieved. I have not always had a good result in these situations.

Do note, the purchase of items or services in person, with a credit or debit card with a Virgin Islands billing address is not a problem anywhere that I have encountered.  With purchases outside of your normal area, like when traveling to Europe, the Middle East or even on the mainland if you don't go there regularly, it is a good idea to let the credit card or debit card company know in advance you are going to be traveling so they won't think someone has made off with your card and is enjoying a great vacation and shopping spree at your expense, which they will stop in an effort to protect you as their customer.

Some ways of dealing with the online/catalog issue for shipping is to have your work address (if it is located in a building they receives mail)  as your credit card billing address.  For those companies who will not do business with debit and credit cards with Virgin Islands billing address at all,  you can maintain a credit card billing address at another residence if you maintain more than one home or with a friend or relative you trust on the mainland. And finally, you can file a complaint with the company in writing about there practice of not servicing the Virgin Islands. We are a small community but sometimes I feel we were simply overlooked and they may not even realize the oversight was made.  The resolution can be as simple as adding the option to the drop down menu.

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