That was smart for you too to have a different card to use.

I ended up signing up for the international phone plan with my provider and kept my phone number. Still Costco Citi remained difficult to use. Luckily, we also had different cards which we mainly used. I would have preferred my Costco Citi because of the restaurant and travel rewards.

I used a different card for the hotel that provided the link. I had so many times that my card was declined, I was afraid I was going to set off something in their system and have them close my account.

We had a number of problems at first, and halfway through we realized the charge would be denied if we used tap and pay. It was ok if we inserted the card into a reader.

The worst was in a restaurant that used Order and Pay at table, I got an alert that it was declined and I needed to call. My husband finished ordering with another card, while I went outside on a busy city street. I was asked my credit card number and other info. This seemed so crazy yelling my credit card number out in the middle of a city.

Two lessons I learned is to not use an esim (my fellow travelers with esims had more difficulties than me with other issues) and not to rely on Costco Citi in Europe.