Charge or pay euro's

[dancing]

Is there any advantage to charging most things on your credit card versus paying in Euro's? Any hidden added fee"s on cahrge cards??

[lambs2]

No surprises if you use a Capital One Master Card. Last May we were very pleasantly surprised with their no exchange fee policy (usually 3% for most charge cards). Ask stores to charge you in their country's currency for a better deal!

Of course many tourist sites and stands only accept Euros so you need them too.

[LHT28]

Depends on your CC. Ours charges 2 1/2% above the daily bank rate for exchange.

check the fine print for your CC

[WineDown17]

Defintiely check.. And if you are going to "barter", ensure you negotiate in the currency that will be charged on the card.. We had an issue once (albeit in Mexico) where we agreed upon a price and when they went to charge us, they "switched currencies" and used a rate very much in their favor (to the tune of 15%). Luckily hubby did the math and caught them.. I never would have thought of doing that.

[whogo]

Outside of the US, merchants may charge more for credit card use.

[Host Karen]

No surprises if you use a Capital One Master Card. Last May we were very pleasantly surprised with their no exchange fee policy (usually 3% for most charge cards). Ask stores to charge you in their country's currency for a better deal!

Of course many tourist sites and stands only accept Euros so you need them too.

 

I was surprised to see you mention a MasterCard. I was under the impression that Visa is the most widely accepted card in Europe. Did you find that to be true of MasterCard as well? If so, I'm putting it in my wallet before I leave. :)

[Globaliser]

Is there any advantage to charging most things on your credit card versus paying in Euro's? Any hidden added fee"s on cahrge cards??

There is one big advantage to putting expenses onto a credit card: You don't have to carry cash. As a generalisation, cash is unsafe, credit cards aren't.

 

The total cost of using a credit card is unlikely to be very different from the total cost of using cash. You are almost certainly going to have to pay something towards the cost of exchanging currencies, however well any particular method may seek to hide that cost from you.

 

Personally, I would prefer to (and probably do) pay more by using a credit card, precisely because it's so easy and safe.

I was surprised to see you mention a MasterCard. I was under the impression that Visa is the most widely accepted card in Europe. Did you find that to be true of MasterCard as well?

In Europe, I can't remember ever having one card declined but not the other. The card which is more likely to cause problems is American Express, which many merchants don't take.

[Host Karen]

In Europe, I can't remember ever having one card declined but not the other. The card which is more likely to cause problems is American Express, which many merchants don't take.

 

My AmEx is not leaving the US! I just wanted to doublecheck on the MC, since we only used Visa last time.

 

Karen

[lambs2]

I was surprised to see you mention a MasterCard. I was under the impression that Visa is the most widely accepted card in Europe. Did you find that to be true of MasterCard as well? If so, I'm putting it in my wallet before I leave. :)

 

We used our Capital One Master Card with no problems in Italy, France and even in Dubrovnik, Croatia last May.

[Globaliser]

My AmEx is not leaving the US!

There's no reason not to bring it if you want to - there are still plenty of places that take Amex. I use an Amex as my primary card, and don't often have problems with that, at least in the UK.