GSteed

Please! American Express offers services that Visa/Mastercard don't. Perhaps compare it to trip insurance. Visa and Mastercard are economical. The cheapest personal system? Cash!!! Carry USA dollars and convert them at local rates. Yes, the risks are great or high but the savings are there. TC's are super safe. They can be lost or stolen but the issurer will replace them. Dollars gone are dollars gone. American credit cards are usually safe, liability limited to $50 for unauthorized charges. Suggestion: confer with your card people, learn their advantages, limits and costs. Make notes and have them acknowledged. There is too much anecdotal material floating about. Ignore it!

Neopolitan

"Cash!!! Carry USA dollars and convert them at local rates. Yes, the risks are great or high but the savings are there."

GSteed,you'd be doing us all a great service to provide us with a list of the places in Europe where you can convert US dollars for a rate better than ATM's offer. You say "the savings are there" -- where? I sure haven't seen those places anywhere in Europe I've been. Do you know a secret?

"There is too much anecdotal material floating about. Ignore it!"
So very true!!!!!

tomboy

I'm surprised all the above posts infer total acceptance of credit cards. No one asked hoby1083 where he/she was planning to go.
VISA and Mastercard are accepted in many places, but by no means all. We ate at a Parisian restaurant 14 months ago which accepted NO credit card.
We know of many places (pensions and restaurants) in Germany that did not accept any. In Czech Republic, only in Prague was it common, and not everywhere there. In Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland the same. Plan on using an ATM card for cash unless you stick to metropolitan areas. It's not like in the US, where almost everywhere (except "dives&quot accepts CC

BTilke

StLSusan, it's not quite that easy. When my husband submitted the receipts he got bollocked by the bean counters for the amount of the bill (he had ordered the least; his American "hosts" had much more expensive tastes). Also, the money had to come out of his department's travel budget, which was pretty tight to begin with. And logos, these were business dinners. Those guys were never what we'd call "friends."
Funny thing was, about a year after those instances, the subsidiary was spun off and a few of the execs were fired by the new owners for significant "accounting irregularities" including playing way too fast and loose with their expenses.

WillTravel

I started paying for almost everything with cash in the first place after coming across a couple small restaurants that said their credit card machine was "broken". I know it's not true, but I just wanted to avoid further confrontation of that sort, and I know it makes the business owners happier to use cash. Now the dynamic currency conversion issue is a big thing, and I don't enjoy the fight trying to get that resolved. So I just prefer to use cash, taking reasonable amounts out of the ATM now and then.

If you pay with AMEX, you don't have the DCC problem, but as noted, few places in Europe take it. Most chain hotels do, though.

xyz123

Different countries have different traditions regarding credit cards...Germany, Austria, Holland seem to be very cash centred countries.

The UK is a lot like the US in that credit card acceptance is very very close to universal (except for pubs)..but they have silly rules negating visa/mc regulations regarding minimum amounts for use of a credit card and the barring of surcharges for use of a credit card.

The French...well for a long time they weren't all that credit card oriented but after the strike by armored car drivers delivering currency to banks, found that credit cards are neat substitutes for cash....

For the most part visa/mc are well near interchangeable. I wouldn't say Amex is rarely accepted in Europe but mc/visa is far more accepted...but what's the big deal..simply carry both.

MargaretandTony

My only recommendation is make sure you take more than one credit card. It would appear from previous comments a VISA or MASTERCARD plus an AmEx would be best.
When we were in London our VISA was refused at a restaurant on our first dinner out. We were horrified as we knew the card was perfectly fine. It was a little embarrasing to say the least when on our honeymoon we had to call (collect) back to the US to have BIL wire money. When we returned home VISA could not figure out why they refused card. They paid us back for extra expenses, money wire fees, etc., but that meant little at the time!
I was unaware of the fees the banks charge. My next emails will be to VISA and AmEx to check on fees before we take off for Scotland. Thanks for that update.

Intrepid1

I would agree with carrying more than one CC.

I used to think the Capital One card was/is great because they don't charge the "conversion fee" but lately I have begun to seriously wonder if they aren't simply folding that "fee" into the exchange rate they use.

Robespierre

All you have to do to find out is run a transaction through xe.com/ccc

Rosalinda

Just returned from Denmark where hotels and restaurants added 3-4% to the bill if we proposed using a "foreign" (i.e. non-Danish) credit card. They were upfront about it, but we didn't appreciate it. Were we supposed to have the equivalent of $1000 in Danish kroner currency after a four-day stay? Their fee of course would be in addition to our own credit card's transaction fees!

50initaly

This thread has given me a lot of insight into my October Trip. I will call my bank as both of my Visa cards say they charge 3%. I have not checked with AMEX yet. I have an enviable position of visiting my daughter and her husband and will be able to deposit $ into their Navy Fed. Credit Union and access it there with minimal difficulty/expense.