Credit Cards

[haulingthescoreup]

---

busywoman wrote:

I've never had a problem anywhere in the world with using a US bank issued ATM card.

The EU banks are prohibited from charging a fee to use their ATM's however international surcharges could apply for non-EU issued bank cards. I would check with several of the banks/credit unions you are looking at to confirm their foreign usage/transaction fees as well as their exchange rate policy before making your final decision.

She shouldn't have too many problems in the Dublin metro area. Extremely rural parts of the country may prove to be more difficult as merchants will prefer to be paid in €.

She will also need to keep the telephone numbers (not US toll-free numbers) for the bankcards handy in the event that she needs to call the US while in IE.

---

Thanks, that's very useful!

And thanks to everyone else for all the great info. Wish I'd done something like this back in the day...

[busywoman]

Hi Hauling,

I did this my Jr year and it was a great experience. Just make sure she comes home to graduate. I did but wanted to stay......................lol

[haulingthescoreup]

She actually got into an argument with the study abroad people about this, because they wanted her to do at least a semester. But she's on her university's Mock Trial team that has an automatic spot in nationals this year, and she feels that she needs to be here during the academic year.

So it's six weeks in summer. She's trying to get an internship in either law or politics, ideally both. She was born to argue, and does so very well, without her victims ever realizing quite what happened!

Wow, a commercial for visiting Ireland just aired. Weird.

[MidnightVoice]

When I go to Europe I keep some US cash in the back of my wallet for when I return.  When I get there I pull a coupple hundred bucks in local currency via my debit card and everything else is via credit card.  Just use on that has minimal finance charges for overseas spending.

And tell her to drink plenty of Guiness - it is good for you 

[haulingthescoreup]

---

MidnightVoice wrote:

When I go to Europe I keep some US cash in the back of my wallet for when I return. When I get there I pull a coupple hundred bucks in local currency via my debit card and everything else is via credit card. Just use on that has minimal finance charges for overseas spending.

And tell her to drink plenty of Guiness - it is good for you

---

Thank you, good advice on juggling cash vs CC.

I'll be sure to tell her about the Guinness. (Brilliant!!) She doesn't drink (or smoke, either), as she regards her parents as models of depravity, so she's in for quite a shock. Her 22-year-old sister did finally learn to choke down beer, so that she can carry something around in her hand at parties. DH and I don't quite know where these two came from.

We're watching "The Commitments" again to get attuned to all things Dublin.

[MidnightVoice]

---

haulingthescoreup wrote:


I'll be sure to tell her about the Guinness. (Brilliant!!) She doesn't drink (or smoke, either), as she regards her parents as models of depravity, so she's in for quite a shock. Her 22-year-old sister did finally learn to choke down beer, so that she can carry something around in her hand at parties. DH and I don't quite know where these two came from.

We're watching "The Commitments" again to get attuned to all things Dublin.

---

When I was last in Ireland I was in a small town, and the Post Office was a bar, the general store was a bar, the gas station was a bar.....  You could walk down one side of main strret and drink in 15 places, and back the other side and drink in 17!

[haulingthescoreup]

Wow, my liver just cringed thinking of it.

This is not an Ireland question, but does England still have the odd drinking hours, left over from WWI or whenever it was? The idea of a beer at 10 a.m. makes my toes curl up, although 12:01 p.m. on a Saturday sounds just fine! I seem to remember that it was a challenge trying to figure when the pubs would be open, because they closed in the middle of the day or something odd.

[MidnightVoice]

---

haulingthescoreup wrote:
Wow, my liver just cringed thinking of it.

This is not an Ireland question, but does England still have the odd drinking hours, left over from WWI or whenever it was? The idea of a beer at 10 a.m. makes my toes curl up, although 12:01 p.m. on a Saturday sounds just fine! I seem to remember that it was a challenge trying to figure when the pubs would be open, because they closed in the middle of the day or something odd.

---

No, they are much more flexible now.  But I think the bars at Covent garden still open at 5am so the people who have just finished delivering Fruit and Veg can have a swift pint!

[busywoman]

I was at a B&B in Germany and went down for breakfast - surprised by all of the men at the bar drinking away so early in the morning........

[loubee]

haugling/midnight

im an ex brit pat, and I have know idea on what card to advice on , but on the part about the pubs, in ireland you may not find what your looking for but you will  always find a pub, great people on both sides of my family my grandparents are irish and i spend half my life there as a child, I have 2 sisters in dublin so haugling if shes need a tour guide, also in uk, alot of our pubs are now 24 hours open,