If you’ve been following along, you know that I’m just back from a week in Europe.

Before heading over, I took the extra precaution of calling a couple of my card issuers to let them know I was going to be traveling – in the hopes that my primary debit and credit cards would continue to function over there! (They did!)

But, in thinking about this a bit more, why couldn’t I just inform them about my location in real-time from my iPhone? Why should I have to call them, wasting both my time and theirs – to provide that update – which, frankly, may or may not be helpful to them – or me.

Envision the alternative scenario – my flight lands in Frankfurt. I power up the iPhone and click on my pseudo-FourSquare app that informs the card issuers I care about where I am – using the geolocation information in the phone (suitably “fuzzed up a bit” to provide a bit of personal privacy protection). They update their risk management systems to include this new location awareness metadata – and my cards will work hassle free.

Extending this mobile app a bit more, perhaps it also informs me of other useful things – such as remembering when my cards are due to expire and helping me manage and update subscription relationships, etc.