Lloyds Avios AMEX card not working in Bulgaria?

Jlawson118

So I got the Avios card specifically to use abroad, and I always prefer to use my American Express card because I get more points with that one.
Although I came to Bulgaria for two months, and in numerous outlets, my AMEX card just gets rejected. Places such as McDonald's that have on the windows and the card machine that the service is accepted, and supermarkets, and other places with the American Express sticker on the window.

My Mastercard works fine with the exchange. Is this due to the currency? (Lev) and does it work with more common currencies like the Euro or Dollar? Or am I unable to use this card anywhere abroad?

reclusive46

I seem to remember in Bulgaria you have to swipe Amex cards a lot of the time, the chip won't work.

SLZ

You need to swipe more often than not in Bulgaria, at least that is my experience in Sofia. Also AMEX isn't widely accepted over there either which will mean it's unusable at many places aside from major shops.

Jlawson118

SLZ wrote: »

You need to swipe more often than not in Bulgaria, at least that is my experience in Sofia. Also AMEX isn't widely accepted over there either which will mean it's unusable at many places aside from major shops.

Yeah, when the contactless or chip & pin has failed, I've noticed the merchants swiping it but it still doesn't work, and they all look really puzzled so I give them my Mastercard and it works fine..
I thought that maybe AMEX isn't widely used, but when I've used it in McDonalds, their chip and pin machines show the American Express symbol, and the same with other shops I've tried it in. But it doesn't seem to work anywhere hahaha

System

Why don't you just use your Mastercard then?
You may get a better rate as Amex will always convert via US dollars

reclusive46

I travel a lot and have come across several machines that don't seem to recognise the Lloyds Amex even though they'll take regular Amex cards just fine. Ralphs in the US, Tim Hortons in Canada (usually declines despite no auth message being sent to Lloyds), Tesco Lotus in Thailand and many others come to mind. My Canadian and UK Amex direct issued cards have worked fine in these places.

reclusive46

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Why don't you just use your Mastercard then?
You may get a better rate as Amex will always convert via US dollars

From experience it makes very little difference, you lose some and win some. Given Amex uses the exchange rate on the day and MasterCard the exchange on the posting day, it really depends on weather the Pound has improved or not to which is better.

System

I used a MBNA Everyday Amex and Clarity in the Euro, USD and CAD. I wasn't overly impressed with the Amex rate in Euro or CAD. The USD rate was around the same.

Appreciated it wasn't scientific, but given the Bulgarian Lev has a fixed Euro rate, not too irrelevant to the OP.

reclusive46 wrote: »

From experience it makes very little difference, you lose some and win some. Given Amex uses the exchange rate on the day and MasterCard the exchange on the posting day, it really depends on weather the Pound has improved or not to which is better.

Jlawson118

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Why don't you just use your Mastercard then?
You may get a better rate as Amex will always convert via US dollars

Yeah I've found I have no other choice but to use my Mastercard, although I prefer using the American Express because it gives me more reward points. I was just wondering if it was normal that it wasn't working properly