What has your experience been with Mastercard at the ATM's in Italy ? Are bank only has this card, should we go to a bank that offers a different/better card ? Thank you very much, Mike and Sharon Morley

Hi <BR>Look at the back of your card. As long as your bank is part of the Cirrus or Plus or other network AND the atm that you go to is part of the same network, your card should work. I used my Mastercard debit card in Florence and Venice with no problem, and a four digit pin.

Any experiences in Paris. I am planning a trip and an hopeful to use my Visa debit card. It is part of the Plus and Honor networks

Visa and Mastercard debit cards worked all over France in virtually every ATM (if it has a Visa or Mastercard insignia - Visa is called Bancaire or some such and Mastercard is called Eurocard or the ilk, but the insignia for each is the same as the U.S - you can use the card there). <BR> <BR>Any establishment that accepts Visa or Mastercard usually has the same stickers on the door. <BR> <BR>In Milan, we had no trouble finding an ATM for money (we did run into one that was broken, but we just went to another corner and bingo found another that worked). <BR> <BR>I have used the Visa/Mastercard in exchange bureaus and banks; they run the card through as though it were a 'purchase', you sign the slip, they give you wads of money. <BR> <BR>I once used a Visa CREDIT card just like that, and got no "cash advance" fee on the transaction as it went through as a merchant purchase (bet they've figured that out since then).

I recently used my 4-digit ATM card with Mastercard logo in Italy for purchases and to get cash (lire) at ATM machines with no problems. What a convenience!!!