ATM's and Mastercard for Greece and Turkey?
 

We plan on using Mastercard in Athens, the Islands and Istanbul for purchases including restaurants. Will this be a problem? We also plan on using ATM's for cash. Is this plan workable? Thanks.

I haven't been to Athens, but definitely in Istanbul using a credit card (we have Mastercard) and ATM is the way to go. I found in Istanbul that there were quite a few places where you needed to have cash instead of using a credit card, but there were plenty of ATM machines around.

I assume it's similar in Athens...

I used ATMs all over Turkey. I also occasionally used my VISA.

I wouldn't have thought Athens would be a problem but in some smaller resorts ATMs can be more difficult to find and not all restaurants take plastic.

We had no problem at all finding ATMs or using credit cards in Athens and in Crete.

We did make sure to take advantage of ATMs to withdraw cash when we knew we would be stopping someplace that might not accept credit cards - like the small roadside taverna on our way to Delphi.

No trouble with ATMs in Athens, or elsewhere in Greece, unless it's in some small village. Before you go, check with your credit card issuer to determine international transaction fees, if any. My cards ranged from 1% to 3%, so obviously I stuck with the 1% one for my purchases! And when using ATMs, you should withdraw cash from your savings/checking account, instead of cash advances from the credit card company!

Make sure that you tell your bank and credit card companies that you will be using your cards in Greece and Turkey, otherwise the fraud depts. will put a stop on them! Also, get contact phone nos. that will work abroad in case you lose a card - 1-800 numbers only work in the U.S (and maybe Canada?)

I got a Capital One Visa card for my last trip - no foreign transaction fee and 1% cash back (although they also have cards that accumulate miles).

Just a little heads up. I needed to use my card for some cash in Turkey and Greece. It ended up costing me close to $15.00 on one transaction and slightly over $10 on the other. The excuse my bank gave was the banks atm I used was not affilated with any of their banking system and so it had to be run through a German bank so each got a cut of the pie and charged a fee.
However that said I also used it in Athens a couple of times with no such problem so I don't know if I was scammed by the bank or just unlucky to pick off beat banks.

We spent almost 2 weeks in mainland Greece in May 2006 and we had no problems using our ATM cards or our Mastercard and Visa credit cards. ATM machines were easy to find in Athens and Nafplio. We found one in Olympia as well, although we didn't come across one in Delphi. Fortunately we had pulled out enough cash and didn't run low.

I'm printing all the good information found here. Thnaks everyone!