Kuwait is a wealthy country with the banking system of a 1st world country. They have Visa/Mastercard accepted all over the place.
Sure, some tiny local shops might be cash-only, but you can find that in some places in the US and Canada too. I go to a tiny Indian restaurant near me that only takes cash. Nail salons often only take tips in cash.
As far as Salah's bullshit about "only local bank cards accepted", how could a credit card even be run in that case? Merchant payment credit card systems go through the same terminals and same technology as the big Visa/Mastercard banks. There's no camel-powered Kuwait credit card service that works by Saudi hunting falcons flying around with paperwork in their beaks.
The cafe where Chantal had her coffee is urban, modern, nicely furnished and served relatively expensive coffee (4 bucks for a standard mug). The waiter spoke English and there were nicely dressed Kuwaiti men behind her. That's clearly a cafe that takes Visa.
If it was so normal to have a card declined because a business doesn’t accept it-why did she mute the transaction?
If the business doesn't accept Visa...why did they try to run it? The waiter can tell from looking at the card that it has a big Visa logo on it. Would the waiter have tried to run a library card, or a birthday card? No, because the waiter knows her job.
It is not unusual for US or Canadian cards not to work in a different country. Chase is the only one that always went through for me.
You were experiencing fraud detection software issues from your own bank, but not from Visa or the network itself. I used to have to explain this over the phone to angry travelers, and it was never a fun conversation. One Arab used to have every fucking thing he owned fraud-frozen when when he went home to visit his parents in the Middle East, LMAO.
If you regularly use your card in whatever particular country, you can easily have your bank "white-list" or allow that location during that time period. I always inform my banks when I travel abroad that I will be using X card in Y country for Z period of time.
Visa is accepted in more than 200 countries. You can't use it somewhere the US govt has banned financial exchanges like Cuba, Russia (currently), or Iran. But I've used it in shithole cities that don't even have flush toilets.
"What person would use their credit or bank card knowing they don't have funds on there?"
Tons and tons and tons of people. Never underestimate how financially irresponsible many people are.
People used to run up a dozen overdraft fees in a weekend back when it was easier to overdraw with a debit card. I saw one guy 1200 in the hole after a strip club hopping weekend in Miami. You wouldn't believe how many people wake up hungover on a Sunday afternoon and realize they blew all their money while blackout drunk.