Coming in a bit late here, but my boss recently used the company credit card in Hong Kong to but a Sony Vaio, Nikon digi camera and another expensive item. Needless to say it was cancelled as it has only ever been used in the UK for smallish things.
They wanted a signed letter from him to reactivate it and didn't really care that he was in Australia and wouldn't be back for at least six months! I think we got the company secretary (his dad) to write to them to authorise it's reactivation and let them know it would be used in Australia a bit in the next few months.
I'm with Lloyds TSB and they have been pretty good - I've got a graduate account which has some neat benefits (interest free overdraft etc.) but the main annoyance is the excessive queues in the local branch when I need to visit (mainly wire transfers)
I have just got a cahoot card because I was told a few months back that fraudulent transactions on a Visa debit card are an b'stard to clear - you lose the money until *they* get it back which can take many weeks.
Gareth