Credit cards in Europe

[beachgal]

Did Viking river cruise Amsterdam to Basel in April. Several places that we tried to use a credit card in the Netherlands would only accept Mastercard. There were several restaurants and stores that did not accept credit cards period. The restaurants/stores where we were able to use a US credit card in Germany, France and Switzerland, we had no problems (our cards do not have the PIN number).

 

I would emphasize that we did NOT bring enough cash - did not know we were going to run into places not taking a VISA credit card, so we ended up getting money from ATMs along the way.

[peterdkiwi]

jms2362

AMEX is not accepted by a lot of smaller business in NZ & Australia due to their higher merchant fees. Main hotels & restaurants ok but you will need to use Visa or Mastercard or cash in most other places

[MarkBearSF]

Note that not all "chip" cards are not the same (and this isn't talking about technology other than the EMV chip which may also include some sort of embedded chip technology - like cards you can tap on a reader).

 

I was able to get chip cards from Citibank and Chase, they are "chip and signature" cards which print a receipt for a required signature. These don't support the stored PIN that is used in Europe. (These allow the processing from the little handheld devices). It was almost impossible to get a chip and PIN card stateside.

 

These chip and signature cards really aren't any more useful than the old mag-strip ones - and of course, all US cards still have the mag-strip. In fact, I found that some machines (and potentially some humans) were confused by a card that had a chip without a PIN. I found rail ticket kiosks to be unusable with those cards. (I found an ATM and used my non-chipped debit card to get cash, which I then used in the kiosks).

 

My mag-strip-only ATM debit card worked fine in all cases. And, aside from my two problems with kiosks for train tickets, my credit cards worked fine in stores and restaurants. I would assume this would be the case even if they were chipless.

 

The moral of the story - don't get excited about getting a card with a chip. Unless it takes a PIN, it won't be different than one simply using a magnetic strip, and might be worse.

[steamboats]

Here in Germany you will need a chip as nearly all hand held devices read out the chip and not the magnetic strip. But I never needed my PIN (and I don´t remember it anyway). We usually sign when paying with credit cards. Ticket machines and ATMs do operate with PINs only (as there is no way to sign anything).

 

The only two times I needed my PIN was in France. Once in a shop but there I was able to sign a receipt. Once at a gas station which was not manned.

 

steamboats

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We us the chase sapphire card ..

[Donray]

We have used American Express and never have been refused in Europe and the Med. area. We are getting ready to go to New Zealand and Australia and will use it, and for money will use ATM for cash. Have decided after reading alot that ordering at a bank before leaving that it costs us alot more. Does anyone have comments on this?

 

We have had AE cards refused at a lot of smaller businesses.

[2ashevillesailors]

We have had AE cards refused at a lot of smaller businesses.

 

We always order money from the bank before we leave on an overseas cruise. We have never used our ATM there. The fees for ATM average $5 at ATM and $5 with our bank, so right there is almost what we pay when ordering ahead. I had my daughter order money for New Zealand and Australia at her Bank of America no fees for this. The rate they paid out at was a little higher but not bad. New Zealand and Australia were expensive, we just went in January, had a great trip.

[KEN31VA]

Check out an article in the Wall Street Journal last weekend about an expanding practice of charging in dollars outside the US. In short, don't do it, it will end up costing you more.

[AttilaTheFun]

In general, you get the best price by paying in the local currency. This was true in Budapest, where they also priced items in euros and USD at a lot of tourist shops, and also in Istanbul. I printed a pocket-size conversion table before we left and that helped us evaluate the prices and which currency was best to use. We never found a situation where euros or USD were better.