Very late update:
She spent the summer with a USAA MC, a BofA Visa, and an AmEx Gold, plus a USAA debit card. All three CC's were taken everywhere, except that there did seem to be several times when either the Visa or MC network was down (certainly more often than here), so it was handy having a different type card. She never did seem to grasp the perils of using a debit card overseas.
She had a wonderful time, certainly moreso than my bank account, but Dublin is a breathtakingly expensive city. She actually wound up gaining 8 pounds from not being able to afford healthy foods (she's normally rail thin) and despite doing a lot of walking.*
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help!
*eta: also because she discovered something called Bulmers (Magners over here) Original Vintage Cider, which sounds incredibly vile. I'm sure that accounted for a few of those pounds.
She spent the summer with a USAA MC, a BofA Visa, and an AmEx Gold, plus a USAA debit card. All three CC's were taken everywhere, except that there did seem to be several times when either the Visa or MC network was down (certainly more often than here), so it was handy having a different type card. She never did seem to grasp the perils of using a debit card overseas.
She had a wonderful time, certainly moreso than my bank account, but Dublin is a breathtakingly expensive city. She actually wound up gaining 8 pounds from not being able to afford healthy foods (she's normally rail thin) and despite doing a lot of walking.*
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help!
*eta: also because she discovered something called Bulmers (Magners over here) Original Vintage Cider, which sounds incredibly vile. I'm sure that accounted for a few of those pounds.
Hopefully this is still helpful to you. I read the forums all the time but never post anything. I know everyone complains and hates HSBC, however, I have had their Premier Banking and credit card for over 5 years and i absolutely LOVE IT. They transfer my bank account and credit card balance in whatever local currency they use for wherever I am at the moment and therefore I pay no transaction fee's whatsoever. So, for instance, I just got back from living in Egypt for 6 months and the entire time I never paid one cent in finance or transaction fees because in their eyes, I was paying in local currency. Also, they have branches ALL OVER THE WORLD.. especially in england (not sure about ireland). Im also not sure, however, there might be a min income requirement. hope this helps?
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Very late update:
She spent the summer with a USAA MC, a BofA Visa, and an AmEx Gold, plus a USAA debit card. All three CC's were taken everywhere, except that there did seem to be several times when either the Visa or MC network was down (certainly more often than here), so it was handy having a different type card. She never did seem to grasp the perils of using a debit card overseas.
She had a wonderful time, certainly moreso than my bank account, but Dublin is a breathtakingly expensive city. She actually wound up gaining 8 pounds from not being able to afford healthy foods (she's normally rail thin) and despite doing a lot of walking.*
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help!
*eta: also because she discovered something called Bulmers (Magners over here) Original Vintage Cider, which sounds incredibly vile. I'm sure that accounted for a few of those pounds.
Ooooh, Hauling, where is "Magners Over Here" to be found "Over Here", please? There is not a single local stockist of the stuff, and I ask not even on my own Anglo-behalf, but on behalf of a Magners/Bulmers-obsessed friend from Minnesota who has raved on about how much she loves it since the day I first met her. She & her husband encountered it in London on their European honeymoon and have failed utterly to find any in the US ever since.... I've promised to fill my case with the stuff when I come back from my first UK visit since moving here, this May!
It's actually nice, by the way... in a pint glass, poured over lots of ice, enjoyed in the sun. Compliment your DD on her cider taste from me, please! I thought I'd grown out of cider-drinking about half my life ago, but an Irish friend reintroduced me to Magners when they brought it out again a few years back, and... yum. Magners/Bulmers (the name has a checkered past involving much confusing name-changing in Ireland & the UK) is perfect summeriness.... sigh!
Anyway! I don't have anything useful to add, just wanted to say that a) Dublin is indeed the most breathtakingly expensive city I've ever come across - and I thought, the first time I went there, that they couldn't shock a Londoner... how wrong I was!!... and b ) nope, they don't do "healthy" over there, despite all that walking you have to do to get everywhere. Oh, and c ), Yeah... AmEx... it was only reading this thread that opened my eyes to how much people over here really expect it to be accepted everywhere. Don't get me wrong, it really IS pretty widely accepted... but that means in big fancy chain places, NOT in little local one-off "mom and pop" establishments. In Europe, if you find one of those places that accept AmEx, consider it a freak occurrence.
You've all made me homesick for 7am beer-and-breakfast pub visits after long, arduous radio-studio nightshifts, and made me long for a very much overdue trip to Dublin. Sniff.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
http://www.magnerscider.com/other-markets/distributors.asp
(I love where you touch a map and all this stuff pops up!)
Anyway, it doesn't look like you can run to Kroger, but it's around.
We actually have a distributor in my city, although I doubt that I could buy it at a local retail establishment. Although there is one semi-genuine English pub, that I can't venture into because of the smoke. I'd be dead within 4 steps. A possibility, anyway.
But you might at least be able to find a distributor the next state over or something.
Thanks, Hauling!
Aha, looks like Michigan and Pennsylvania are going to be our closest sources of Magners. I had no idea it was available anywhere in the US - my Magners-loving friend will be very, very excited indeed!
On an entirely non-cider-related note, another thing about AmEx in Europe... even where it is accepted, you'll probably be slapped with a reasonably hefty fee for using it. Surcharges for using a credit card (and even higher surcharges for using AmEx) are pretty common over there. Not sure whether they're against the terms of the merchant agreements like they are here, but if they are, those terms are constantly flouted, by smaller businesses at least, anything involving online ordering, etc. When I mentioned having an American Express card to my mother she sounded horrified, and said "but doesn't everyone charge you a ton of fees every time you use it??"