I wouldn't say my fear is of travel necessarily, but having lots of money tied up in something that's uncertain. I'm very neurotic when it comes to money- if I buy the wrong size of a $30 shirt, and I cancel my order, that $30 is in the back of my mind until it's resolved and cleared off my accounts. Which is a good thing, in a way, but it makes commiting to international travel in advance pretty difficult. If I wanted to book a trip, I'd have to do it months in advance well beyond chargeback term limits. Putting money down and trusting that my flight, hotel, rental car, and everything else will all fall into place with basically no recourse if they don't is pretty hard for me.