What is the best card to use on a Europe trip?

[JoshNurse]

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@carlosjgg wrote:

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@JoshNurse wrote:

I leave on July 30 and want to take just 1 credit card to use over there.  What is my best option and is this a good idea?

I am not sure if I should take all cash or part cach for taxis and other needs and the rest credit card.

On my previous offshore trips it was all cash but it was such an inconvinience having to hold all that cash on me all the time.

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a card with no ftf is the best choice, try to pay with it as much as yo can, do not take much cash with you is better to take money out of a atm even for a fee obviously out of your checking account with your debit card not with your credit card,because when you take dollars and exchange then for euros the exchange rate is very high because the bank or money exchange agency will take a healthy profit,do not exchange your dollars for euros here in the states it is a a total ripoff do it over there, when you take the money out of a atm in euros you bank will charge you the official exchange rate take the most money the atm allows to avoid the fees every time you take money out . pay with cash only when there is no other choice. you credit card will also pay the official exchange rate and you will earn the reward if you credit card has any, this is what i have learned out traveling all over the world over 5 times a year for over 10 years.

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Thanks so my best option is to exchange USD to EURO and turckish currency in my local bank of america bank?

[longtimelurker]

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@JoshNurse wrote:

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do not exchange your dollars for euros here in the states it is a a total ripoff do it over there, when you take the money out of a atm in euros you bank will charge you the official exchange rate take the most money the atm allows to avoid the fees every time you take money out . pay with cash only when there is no other choice. you credit card will also pay the official exchange rate and you will earn the reward if you credit card has any, this is what i have learned out traveling all over the world over 5 times a year for over 10 years.

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Thanks so my best option is to exchange USD to EURO and turckish currency in my local bank of america bank?

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So doesn't quite follow from what was said!

As others have said, main rules are to use cards without FTFs, take local currency from ATMs abroad, ideally using cards which don't charge or reimburse fees (Schwarb being the common example), avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion by always making sure you are charged in local currency rather than having the merchant "helpfully" charge in $s.

And I always keep one credit card in a very separate place from the rest so that you are likely to have one in reserve if you lose the rest through theft or accident.

[carlosjgg]

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@JoshNurse wrote:

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@carlosjgg wrote:

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@JoshNurse wrote:

I leave on July 30 and want to take just 1 credit card to use over there.  What is my best option and is this a good idea?

I am not sure if I should take all cash or part cach for taxis and other needs and the rest credit card.

On my previous offshore trips it was all cash but it was such an inconvinience having to hold all that cash on me all the time.

---

a card with no ftf is the best choice, try to pay with it as much as yo can, do not take much cash with you is better to take money out of a atm even for a fee obviously out of your checking account with your debit card not with your credit card,because when you take dollars and exchange then for euros the exchange rate is very high because the bank or money exchange agency will take a healthy profit,do not exchange your dollars for euros here in the states it is a a total ripoff do it over there, when you take the money out of a atm in euros you bank will charge you the official exchange rate take the most money the atm allows to avoid the fees every time you take money out . pay with cash only when there is no other choice. you credit card will also pay the official exchange rate and you will earn the reward if you credit card has any, this is what i have learned out traveling all over the world over 5 times a year for over 10 years.

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Thanks so my best option is to exchange USD to EURO and turckish currency in my local bank of america bank?

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no your best option is when you get to Europe go to a atm and get cash, if you take dollars from here and exchange then there for euros is very expensive, example if you take out 400 euros through a atm with your debit card  in Europe at a exchange rate of 1.25 dollar per euro is 500 dollars  plus a 3 atm fee is 503.00 but if you take that same 503 dollars cash to a exchange agency to covert then in euros  they will give you a exchange rate of something like 1.40 dollar per euro or even more that is equal to 360 euros you just lost 40 euros, so it is much better to take the money of of a atm while you are there. it is much better to use your no ftf credit card because if you buy something worth 400 euros at a 1.25 you credit card will charge you 500 dollars, so you you just save 3 dollars plus you get 500 reward points. if you go to bank of America and buy euros is the worst option they will buy the euros at about 1.5 dollar per euro plus on top of that a service fee. sorry if i did not explain myself clearly in the previous post.

[Pat94108]

I am going to Europe in September. I will be using my debit card as it has no FTF (Capital One 360) and I recenlty applied for United Mileage but will also take my Amex just in case. If you take a discover card, be careful Discover is not accepted in some European countries (e.g. France) . And yes to get cash, the best is to withdraw at an ATM once you're there. 

[mongstradamus]

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@Pat94108 wrote:

I am going to Europe in September. I will be using my debit card as it has no FTF (Capital One 360) and I recenlty applied for United Mileage but will also take my Amex just in case. If you take a discover card, be careful Discover is not accepted in some European countries (e.g. France) . And yes to get cash, the best is to withdraw at an ATM once you're there. 

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Hmm i am wondering for my trip to thailand in september if going with CSP, QS, discover is enough to carry that should cover most places or should i bring an amex as an back up backup card. 

[echo13]

I was just there for my honeymoon, took two cards... CSP & Marriott. Both cards have no foreign transaction fees. Boths worked perfectly

[Jdear148]

I would take an amex and a visa. Don't expect to use the amex anywhere except for the airport, large hotels, and large department stores in malls. All the smaller vendors as a whole don't accept amex because of the higher fees they get charged.  Visa has a higher acceptance rate in western europe, and my wife and I don't ever recall seeing somewhere discover was accepted, not to say it isn't sparsely accepted. My wife is French so it goes without saying that we travel a lot there. Also, a chip is highly recommended as  the vast majority of local restaurants bring a remote chip reader to your table to have you pay rather than carry your card off to a strip reader. 

[carlosjgg]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Pat94108 wrote:

I am going to Europe in September. I will be using my debit card as it has no FTF (Capital One 360) and I recenlty applied for United Mileage but will also take my Amex just in case. If you take a discover card, be careful Discover is not accepted in some European countries (e.g. France) . And yes to get cash, the best is to withdraw at an ATM once you're there. 

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Hmm i am wondering for my trip to thailand in september if going with CSP, QS, discover is enough to carry that should cover most places or should i bring an amex as an back up backup card. 

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I not sure about this because i do no carry a discover card but i think if a merchant takes dinnersclub you discover card will work there since discover owns the dinnerclub network, can somebody confirm this?

[lg8302ch]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Pat94108 wrote:

I am going to Europe in September. I will be using my debit card as it has no FTF (Capital One 360) and I recenlty applied for United Mileage but will also take my Amex just in case. If you take a discover card, be careful Discover is not accepted in some European countries (e.g. France) . And yes to get cash, the best is to withdraw at an ATM once you're there. 

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Hmm i am wondering for my trip to thailand in september if going with CSP, QS, discover is enough to carry that should cover most places or should i bring an amex as an back up backup card. 

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Amex is the card  that stays home when I travel....I have yet to find a country that takes cc and would not accept VI or MC. Discover is hit and miss but as no FTF card will travel with me. I never travel with  travelers checks  or much cash and  heavily depend on my Europen Maestro  and US (Visa)  ATM cards and can confirm that  only once had difficulty finding ATMs that we're open to international cards and that was Brazil. I have done withdrawals  at ATMs on all continents (Maestro, Cirrus, Star, Interlink, etc) and  in counties where you would expect troubles but ATMs were way more reliable than finding a currency exchange place to cash a travelers check. Just make sure you take more than 1 card of each (credit, debit /ATM)  and do not carry them together just in case you have it stolen.  With this system I have been around the globe as flight attendant for a European Airline and made heavy use of ATM machines worldwide ....lol

[physicist82]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Pat94108 wrote:

I am going to Europe in September. I will be using my debit card as it has no FTF (Capital One 360) and I recenlty applied for United Mileage but will also take my Amex just in case. If you take a discover card, be careful Discover is not accepted in some European countries (e.g. France) . And yes to get cash, the best is to withdraw at an ATM once you're there. 

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Hmm i am wondering for my trip to thailand in september if going with CSP, QS, discover is enough to carry that should cover most places or should i bring an amex as an back up backup card. 

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We just went to Bangkok in March and we do not have an Amex at all. We used our Chase Mastercard anywhere that we actually used credit.

Warning though......Bangkok did not supply us with lots of opportunities to use credit. Taxis take cash only, the skytrain and normal train take cash only. For exchange its just like the Europe situation. A lot of the museums and convenience stores take cash only. Take US cash with you and exchange it there. Unfortunately the ATMS didn't have the no fee partnership like we had in Rome so we took cash with us and exchanged it at the exchange places in town. Over there they are pretty good about it and if you do some google researching you can find out which company has the best exchange rate. If you make it into the airport before 11pm their time then you get the best exchange rate at the place next to the train platform because they are the only one that aren't using the military exchange rate.