Cash/Credit Cards/Travelers Checks
May 5th, 2001, 11:12 AM
#1
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Cash/Credit Cards/Travelers Checks
I would not like to take much cash (dollars) on my trip to Greece but I am not sure if credit cards are widely accepted. Can anyone please tell me what their experience has been with credit card use in Greece (Athens/Mykonos/Santorini)? Should I also take travelers checks? Thanks for your help!
May 5th, 2001, 12:12 PM
#2
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In my opnion, I follow the Fodors and Frommers rules-take ATM car,Credit card,a small amount of cash AND travellers checks--Keep the T>C numbers and 800 number on a separate piece of paper in your luggage-not on your person- if you get pickpocketed,or lose everything, you still have t.c. to bail you out in an "all else fails" scenerio. <BR>I always carry all of the abovr but hide my atm,cc,and tc in a under the clothes money bag. You can use Visa,MC and AX in Europe.
May 5th, 2001, 04:23 PM
#3
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I didn't have any problem using credit cards last summer in Greece. I exchanged a fair amount of money to Drachmas on my way there - and changed more travelers checks to Drachmas when I was on Santorini. I used credit cards for large purchases. All work well. <BR> <BR>Martha <BR>
May 5th, 2001, 06:28 PM
#4
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In Athens, credit cards were widely accepted. On the islands however, lots of restuarants had credit card stickers on their windows, but when it came time to pay, they really wanted cash. We had several instances, where they said to just come back next day with cash. They have to pay large services fees to run the credit cards thru the bank...
May 8th, 2001, 07:17 PM
#5
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I didn't bother with any traveller checks last August (2000), although I did have several $100 cash as "emergency backup". I relied on several credit cards and my ATM card. <BR> <BR>I found that VISA branded credit cards and ATM cards seemed somewhat more popular, outnumbering Mastercard perhaps 60% to 40%. <BR> <BR>Sometimes I had to go to a 2nd (or rarely a 3rd) bank to ensure my Mastercard branded ATM card could do a drachma withdrawal. <BR> <BR>With both credit cards and ATM cards, the exchange rate was very competitive, within 1% or so of the Prime interbank rate. <BR> <BR>I kept the cards in 2 or 3 separate locations so that I wouldn't be screwed if I was pickpocketed or lost my wallet.
