Mastercard refused in Holland & Germany

kernowguy

I have a Tesco Mastercard and used it on a trip to Germany. Paid for petrol in Belgium no problem. Tried to pay for clothes in Germany and refused to take my card. Same thing happened in Holland in IKEA. Very long call to Tesco revealed no problem their end. Tried to use again on check out of IKEA and told by clerk that "IKEA in Holland do not accept Mastercard" My partner also has a Mastercard and so I was fortunate I have a Visa Debit card with which to pay.
Anyone else had a problem like this? a I am starting to question whether a good idea to have a Mastercard as I need house it on trips abroad and have not hit this problem before.
Oh, out of the blue on return to UK Tesco sent me a voucher for 650 points as a "Thank you" for staying with Mastercard (I presume) after the shift from Visa a while back. Strange that:question:

reclusive46

MasterCard is normally accepted everywhere Visa Credit is accepted but remember places like IKEA might only accept Visa Debit and MasterCard Debit. Did the card work fine when you got home? Also are you sure that the transactions abroad were not referred? When this happens the card is not blocked but the merchant needs to call MasterCard.

World wide MasterCard is accepted in more places than Visa.

Degenerate

I'd say it's more about the situation with card payments in Holland and Germany than it is about Visa vs Mastercard. Having travelled several times to both countries over the past few years I was very surprised how backward these supposedly advanced nations are with card acceptance, I actually have better luck in Hungary. Germany is especially bad, I can understand the smaller retailers being a problem, but I couldn't even use cards to buy a train ticket at the airport.

Although you happened to have more luck with Visa, it could just as well have been the other way around. Best advice is to take both, plus some cash as backup.

aideng

I lived in Germany for 2 years and never had problems with my MasterCard. I think most people normally use Maestro there.
I have both Visa and Mastercard just in case...

guesswho2000

kernowguy wrote: »

Oh, out of the blue on return to UK Tesco sent me a voucher for 650 points as a "Thank you" for staying with Mastercard (I presume) after the shift from Visa a while back. Strange that:question:

The 650 points will be the annual bonus you were given when they "upgraded" your card. There's other threads about that on here.

I would imagine the acceptance problem would be down to the retailer, I've used MC & Visa interchangeably in Germany & Netherlands (along with many other countries round the world) without major issue.

The issues I've had were my NatWest MC being refused in Serbia (but accepted in Romania the following day) - the retailer processed a CapitalOne MC without issue, so that was the bank's problem; the only other issue was in USA - cards from all issuers bar MBNA were declined (Visa & MC) due to the lack of chip & pin flagging as fraud (I didn't notify the issuers before the trip, a long and very expensive call to Barclaycard allowed me to finally withdraw cash).

T'he one thing I will add is that card acceptance worldwide isn't what we're used to in the UK, I've found myself in even seemingly large retailers/hotels etc where I've had to pay in cash, much to my annoyance! Strangely, Vietnam was one place I had no problem paying with plastic!

Plxply

According to the Visa and MasterCard international guidelines if they display the Visa/Mastercard logo then they must accept all Visa/Mastercard cards. There is no accepting only Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit. If you display their logo then you have to accept all of their cards, which has caused some retailers to complain as Mastercard Elite charges more in fees but must be accepted to comply with the guidelines.

I would question whether it's being declined by your bank or the actual retailer. If it's the retailer is refusing to take your card and they display either logo then they're breaking the merchant agreement. I know there is a form to report to a merchant to Visa US and MasterCard US but there is not much for other countries.

reclusive46

guesswho2000 wrote: »

The 650 points will be the annual bonus you were given when they "upgraded" your card. There's other threads about that on here.

I would imagine the acceptance problem would be down to the retailer, I've used MC & Visa interchangeably in Germany & Netherlands (along with many other countries round the world) without major issue.

The issues I've had were my NatWest MC being refused in Serbia (but accepted in Romania the following day) - the retailer processed a CapitalOne MC without issue, so that was the bank's problem; the only other issue was in USA - cards from all issuers bar MBNA were declined (Visa & MC) due to the lack of chip & pin flagging as fraud (I didn't notify the issuers before the trip, a long and very expensive call to Barclaycard allowed me to finally withdraw cash).

T'he one thing I will add is that card acceptance worldwide isn't what we're used to in the UK, I've found myself in even seemingly large retailers/hotels etc where I've had to pay in cash, much to my annoyance! Strangely, Vietnam was one place I had no problem paying with plastic!

Indeed. From Experience MBNA and American Express seem to be the only ones that don't seem to automatically block transactions in the USA. You can't even get Barclaycard to note your going abroad anymore, apparently they will call your mobile. Well thats great when the roaming fee is £1.50 a min in the USA to receive a call.

Is it just me that finds MBNA and Amex better with card declines than anyone else.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Theodora5 wrote: »

hello and welcome

:spam: is not welcome.

amyloofoo

I would presume it was due to some sort of anti-fraud measure as it was used in several countries in a short period of time. It must have been very infuriating though and I'm not sure why Tesco were unable to help. Hopefully it was a minor blip which will resolve itself; do you usually inform your bank / credit cards before you go abroad to stop automatic blocks?

reclusive46

amyloofoo wrote: »

I would presume it was due to some sort of anti-fraud measure as it was used in several countries in a short period of time. It must have been very infuriating though and I'm not sure why Tesco were unable to help. Hopefully it was a minor blip which will resolve itself; do you usually inform your bank / credit cards before you go abroad to stop automatic blocks?

The problem is if the card was referred instead of declined, the card actually has no blocks on it, it was just the merchants job to call authorisations for that particular transaction but as always, merchants can never be bothered lol

Maestro.

reclusive46 wrote: »

World wide MasterCard is accepted in more places than Visa.

Really - I thought the opposite was true.

It would explain then why most credit cards nowadays are MasterCard.