What's with Visa and MasterCard in Europe? (best, safe, work)

[caseras]

Originally Posted by RoxanneHall

most places in europe accept credit cards but you need chip and pin which is a technology that usa does not have, even though it was probably invented in usa.

Not really this technology has been made in France for the 70's .

Smart card


Actually, the US try since the begining of the 90's to bypass the european rules on the patents.... they are on the brink of doing it.

[lovelongboatkey]

Just came back from Paris and had no trouble using our Visa card every where. We noticed most people used debit cards but we prefer credit cards. We do not carry a balance and for safety reasons just makes more sense to use a credit card. I do wish we would get the mobile credit/debit machines here. It is so nice not to have to hand over your card to some stranger in a restaurant.

[gow69]

I have just come back from Germany and had problems using a VISA debit card. All the shops I went into would not accept it and had to withdraw cash from a Cash machine/ATM. The only place that accepted VISA was the airport! UK travelers can use MAESTRO debit cards freely; the problem is most UK banks reverted back to VISA!

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by jsfountain

I live in France (i am american). I noticed that no one here has credit cards. They all use debit cards that are tied to bank accounts....

Where I live in Portugal it is the same. And I do not see many credit card signs at all. I have a Visa from my local bank, but I only use it on the Internet.

Although we get many tourists where I live, only a very few are Americans...and most of those are students. I don't think American business matters that much.

[elnina]

They are accepted pretty much everywhere, maybe except in small remote villages. Never had any problem anywhere in Europe. Some places accept Visa OR Master card only, so is wise to have one of each. Mostly used by tourists. European do not use credit cards a lot. They use debit cards and cash. ( They tend to buy only that what they can pay for

[elnina]

Originally Posted by gow69

I have just come back from Germany and had problems using a VISA debit card. All the shops I went into would not accept it and had to withdraw cash from a Cash machine/ATM. The only place that accepted VISA was the airport! UK travelers can use MAESTRO debit cards freely; the problem is most UK banks reverted back to VISA!

You need to clear with your bank if you can use your bank Visa debit card as a Visa Credit Card. A debit card is not a Credit Card.

[gow69]

Thanks Elnina, I am aware that a debit card is not a credit card! In the USA my UK debit card is put through as a credit card; nevertheless all the stores I went into in Hannover and Braunschweig stated that they they could not accept the VISA debit card - I was not the only person to be leg-swept by this! Only one e I entered in Wolfenbuttel accepted the VISA debit. I have no problems in France, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries, The Netherlands, and Poland to name a few. This leads one to believe it may be due to the costs incurred in processing the VISA transaction that limits there uses to more international arenas! So if traveling from the UK to [more remote parts of] Germany make sure to ask first if they accept VISA debit cards. MAESTRO is widely accepted.

[Sweden]

Originally Posted by elnina

They are accepted pretty much everywhere, maybe except in small remote villages. Never had any problem anywhere in Europe. Some places accept Visa OR Master card only, so is wise to have one of each. Mostly used by tourists. European do not use credit cards a lot. They use debit cards and cash. ( They tend to buy only that what they can pay for

Oops Ok, I want to change my previous post - most people don't use credit cards but debit cards. Didn't know there was another word for it in English (should have known but didn't...)

But Mastercard is used as debit card by most of the biggest banks, so they most certainly work. I have both Mastercard (debit) and VISA (credit) (don't try anything now, though!)

[2360039]

Restaurants here in belgium are not so keen on creditcards.
Even if you can pay with a creditcard, they prefer cash.
Creditcards are official, money can be black

That is the main reason I think.

[meet4]

There is no way how to say whether card is credit or debit. Usually what is called "debit" processing is PIN or Chip+PIN authentication and so called "credit" involves signature. Using both methods you can reserve some money on account or revoke the payment later. The insurance and security of payment is not related to debit/credit but to the rules of specific bank.

The reason some vendors in Europe refuse to accept cards are following:

- Transaction fee up to 3% of total price. In tourism industry your profit is often less than 3% so paying by credit card makes a lot of difference. Especially smaller/family establishments or facilities in "poorer" countries are prone to this. Also it's not so easy to avoid heavy taxes if your payment is processed through bank, rather than roll of euros.

- Problems when person revokes the transaction. It's really not worth the effort to go into arguments with US bank and Mastercard/VISA if some tourist will revoke the payments due to "bad service" or what's not. Also there is no protection in case of credit card fraud or identity theft... or well, there is, but small business owners don't have resources for it.

- He could be an ignorant. This is not so uncommon. There are plenty of myths about bank cards circulating and even in this thread there is a lot of misleading/wrong info, so what do you want from some 60 years old hotel owner in south Italy.

You can mention to owner that without bank card you will not come again. He will consider if 3% fee, revocation costs and taxes are worth it or not and might change the policy in the future.