Barclaycard aboard

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

MattMattMattUK said:

WillPS said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards are accepted globally, the card issuer is irrelevant.

Not true, or at least not until recently. Many German merchants will only accept V Pay and many Dutch merchants will only accept Maestro. It's a real pain.

Edit: these are being phased out now and replaced by Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit cards, but even so the point stands that you can't assume everywhere will accept Visa/Mastercard like you can in the UK. In some countries merchants will also be less likely to accept credit cards at all, even if they accept debit cards.

Amex is patchy even in the UK!

I have travelled to Germany over fifty times in the last decade, not once have I had a Visa or Mastercard credit card refused.

Amex used to be in the UK, but it is a rarity for it to not be accepted these days.

It happens. Of course, you're more likely to run in to issues with local independent merchants than large upmarket chains.

Actually it's the middle ground that's the issue, or the long established independent. 

In recent years new starters and independents have been using the likes of Zettle, SumUp and SquareUp etc which all accept AmEx out the box. Even our local takeaway recently updated their machine and after a decade of saying they dont accept AmEx they now do, but encourage a tip.

I appreciate I live in central London but spend most my transactions in single site companies (not most money) and there is only two that dont accept AmEx these days. 

Is that the case internationally tho?

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

MattMattMattUK said:

WillPS said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards are accepted globally, the card issuer is irrelevant.

Not true, or at least not until recently. Many German merchants will only accept V Pay and many Dutch merchants will only accept Maestro. It's a real pain.

Edit: these are being phased out now and replaced by Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit cards, but even so the point stands that you can't assume everywhere will accept Visa/Mastercard like you can in the UK. In some countries merchants will also be less likely to accept credit cards at all, even if they accept debit cards.

Amex is patchy even in the UK!

I have travelled to Germany over fifty times in the last decade, not once have I had a Visa or Mastercard credit card refused.

Amex used to be in the UK, but it is a rarity for it to not be accepted these days.

It happens. Of course, you're more likely to run in to issues with local independent merchants than large upmarket chains.

Actually it's the middle ground that's the issue, or the long established independent. 

In recent years new starters and independents have been using the likes of Zettle, SumUp and SquareUp etc which all accept AmEx out the box. Even our local takeaway recently updated their machine and after a decade of saying they dont accept AmEx they now do, but encourage a tip.

I appreciate I live in central London but spend most my transactions in single site companies (not most money) and there is only two that dont accept AmEx these days. 

Is that the case internationally tho?

Ultimately every country is different and it waxes and wanes over time. Zettle, as a PayPal product now, certainly is getting into many countries and it wont be harmed by the general increased use if cards -v- cash the world over. 

Wasn't that long ago that I was wanting to buy an item from Germany and they had a major issue with accepting anything but cash on delivery other than that wasn't an issue for international deliveries. 

Marchitiello

Sncjw said:

Hi 

....this time I'm going to Rhodes. When we were away we only used it a couple of times for paying for a meal out and an excursion.  Is it widely accepted in Rhodes? 

We were taking euros for day to day spend and about 600 euros as I know the exchange rate isn't as good as lev. Also we are only going for a week this time. 

I know we will have to pay it back straight away once we get the statement as we are out the 0 percent deal. 

Thank you 

Hi,

you need to be aware that most cash machine in Greece charge non customer for usage, with only few exceptions, mainly in Athens, however worth researching this specific topic on a travel forum.

For paying directly, as far as the merchant accept cards, they should accept Visa.

Sncjw

Marchitiello said:

Sncjw said:

Hi 

....this time I'm going to Rhodes. When we were away we only used it a couple of times for paying for a meal out and an excursion.  Is it widely accepted in Rhodes? 

We were taking euros for day to day spend and about 600 euros as I know the exchange rate isn't as good as lev. Also we are only going for a week this time. 

I know we will have to pay it back straight away once we get the statement as we are out the 0 percent deal. 

Thank you 

Hi,

you need to be aware that most cash machine in Greece charge non customer for usage, with only few exceptions, mainly in Athens, however worth researching this specific topic on a travel forum.

For paying directly, as far as the merchant accept cards, they should accept Visa.

Yeah I've seen that they charge couple euros but that's ok. Rather pay a couple euro or quid than have more than I need. 

Also I found out my Barclaycard is in credit I think it's do with the reward spending so it will balance out.