Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Pay cash or Visa

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Does anyone know if the same thing applies to American Express or Discover card?

It is possible that some of the posters who are not paying an additional 1-2% fee on CC purchases have negotiated that deal with the credit card companies..they will often do that for prime ustomers and depositers..They will even negotiate the interest that is charged if the circumstances are right.

Drew: Once again I have stood by for too long and allowed a simple situation to become unnecessarily complex. Please allow me to explain, as usual, by use of example: Let's say you are going to London and have decided to take your Visa. Now as you well know, on any given day, on any given card, in any given city, there may be from 0 - 5 different fees working--simultaneously--to one purpose and one purpose only: to steal your money! "How do I prevent this travesty from occurring?" you may well ask yourself. Well, the answer is quite simple: Use the Macabee "Reverse Transaction Principle". The Macabee "Reverse Transaction Principle" or MRTP as it is more commonly referred to, is a complex numbers system (firmly grounded in Chaos theory) that allows the user to reverse patently unauthorized transactions, purpagated by various financial institutions, against an individual without his or her consent. By now I'm sure you are asking, "how does the MTRP work?". The answer to this query lies with the individual or--more importantly--with the individual's credit card. You see, although random in appearance, the numbers on your individual credit card were chosen very carefully due to certain mathematical properties that they contain. For example, your Visa contains an average of sixteen numbers. Believe it or not, within these numbers lie two variables, a) a phone number which connects you directly with a computer capable of making changes to your account and, b) the pass code which activates the computer and causes it to respond to vocal commands. It is by way of these two numbers that you, the user, can go in and “reverse transactions” to your card. “Yes, but how do I figure out what these numbers are?” I hear you ask. Well, once again, my answer is quite simple, “I have absolutely no idea. Sorry, but Chaos theory isn’t my strong suit. Hope this helps to clarify things, Dr. Al

Dr. Al! You sleigh me...who are you?

Nancy Dr Al is a good friend of mine from Saturn. Our shortcoming, however, is that sometimes we get to rapped up in Earthling details. Hope this answers your question.

I just ordered a couple of maps from LondonTown.com which came to 5.90 BPS. I was billed $8.39 on my Visa card plus "FOR. TRAN. FEE $0.17" bigger than Dallas on my statement for a total of $8.56. My Visa card is through Chase Bank. So, there are no hidden charges -- they are spelled out up front -- at least on my statement.

The "hidden charges" are usually in the lower than "interbank exchange" rate used to calculate the charge in USD which you see on your CC statement. Most people don't really know what the interbank exchange rate really was at the time of purchase!

Don't forget in the UK to always have a bit of cash with you. Don't know if it's the same in the US, but small establishments often won't accept credit cards for less than £5, even sometimes £10 (or they'll add a charge). Also, not everywhere accepts credit cards.

To BettyK Chase is the only bank I know of that clearly lists its 2% charge on its statement but they are all the biggest rip off bank of them all Why? Instead of applying the 2% to the original amount (i.e. simply doubling the MC/Visa surcharge) they compound the charge by applying the 2% (as you see from your statement) to the amount after it has been converted...

Paeony makes a good point... In the United States, the contracts MasterCard/Visa merchants sign with their banks specifically prohibit them from applying a minimum amount to be charged or applying a surcharge for use of a credit card. These are very enlightened rules as the price of accepting credit cards is built into the price merchants set for goods. Therefore, if any merchant accepts credit cards, the prices for accepting credit cards is built into the price. Therefore, I use my credit card at every place that takes credit cards no matter how small....I resent when merchants try to break their agreements and carry with me a card received from Visa prohibiting the practice. After much grumbling, I have never had my credit card refused even for purchases as small as $1.03. As far as prohibiting surcharges, I don't undersand how the oil companies got away with that garbage for years when they surcharged credit card purchases although they tried to pass them up as cash discounts....(BS) Unfortunately for enlightened consumers, UK law does not allow credit card companies to establish prohibitions on these unethical practices and so there are places where you have to spend at least £5 to use a credit card (museum shops and the London Transport Museum gift shop come to mind).

Use Visa as it's much easier than paying with cash. Exchange rates may also fluctuate in your favor when they bill you.

I had a travelmate that insisted on paying for everything on her visa. Turnedout that her bank sometimes "lost" the charges. It's cheaper in any case. If you go about changing money in convenient places, like tourist exchange offices, you wind up paying comission to them and getting a not-as-great-as-visa exchange rate.

The 2% foreign transaction fee is one that I set out to avoid on an upcoming UK trip, out of principle as much as out of cost. As a result, I applied for a new Capital One VISA card that has no such fee. I went to their website, applied online and got the card within 2 weeks. I'll use that card on the trip, then go back to my regular card which has 1% rebate features for my back home purchases.

I've never seen Discover accepted in Iceland, Ireland or Great Britain. American Express is not as widely accepted as Visa or Mastercard and they usually charge a 3% conversion fee, so I don't even bring my AMEX card when I travel. I use Visa for most purchases and MC for car rental.

Discover is a US only credit card. Nobody has ever heard of it, let along accept it, outside the US. As far as Amex...it's foreign surcharge is 2%. While it is widely accepted in Europe, it is nowhere near as universal as MC/Visa. The way I describe it is that I have yet to come across a single merchant anyplace who takes Amex and does not also take MC/Visa. But there are lots and lots of merchants who take MC/Visa and won't touch Amex because of the merchant charge.