prepaid credit card
Feb 18th, 2007 | 01:02 PM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
prepaid credit card
Has anyone traveled to Italy using the prepaid visa or mastercards? Have seen such horror stories about credit and debit cards , i"m stressed. Even one about atm cards with a zero in the pin?????
Feb 18th, 2007 | 01:08 PM
#2
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 74,699
Likes: 0
Hi G,
Calm down.
Millions of people go to Europe every year and have no trouble at all. They just don't write in to say, "I had no trouble".
Prepaid cards are too expensive.
You can have a zero in your PIN. However, some folks have reported difficulties when the first no. was a zero.
Calm down.
Millions of people go to Europe every year and have no trouble at all. They just don't write in to say, "I had no trouble".
Prepaid cards are too expensive.
You can have a zero in your PIN. However, some folks have reported difficulties when the first no. was a zero.
Feb 18th, 2007 | 04:18 PM
#3
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,019
Likes: 0
I would actually get a few traveler's checks rather buy than a prepaid card! You are stuck with a fee for the service any way you go about it. And don't believe these no fee claims.
Why? I bought some traveler's checks from AAA once. The associate who sold them to me said, "We charge no fee." True, but the exchange rate was about 5% against me compared with the wholesale bank rate of exchange. So the "no fee" was not exactly "mark up free."
I have gone to Europe once a year since 1998 for periods as long as a month. I have relied almost exclusively on ATM cards and credit cards each time.
For some reason, age I suppose, I had this atavistic urge to carry American Express checks on my first trip in 1998. It was my first trip in many, many years and I was still clinging to old ideas.
Now, 2007, I have used two of them. I cashed one check in the airport in Zürich because the bank ATM machine was broken. After I figured up the exchange fee I paid, I said something naughty.
I cashed the second one that same trip when we were in a very small Swiss town and my ATM card would not work locally.
I think the machine was Cirrus only and I unfortunately was Plus only. So I had to eat another fee for cashing a second check.
Since then I have not used any of the original batch of traveler's checks. I still have some of them tucked in my passport case and they have logged about 60,000 miles or more.
What I have done is this: 1. My wife and I have 2 checking accounts and we each carry the ATM card for both of them. 2. For one of the accounts, I also carry a debit card (check card) because a couple of times my debit card worked whereas the ATM card did not. (I do not know why. Malfunction of my card or some other reason???) 3. I carry one credit card and my wife carries a second card of a different variety.
In the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere we have had no trouble getting money from an ATM since that first trip. Two explanations for that experience. Airports commonly now have several aTMs, and the use of ATM cards seems to be much more widespread and less limited to "species", e.g. Cirrus or Plus than 10 years ago.
Also I don't think the zero in the PIN will be a problem unless, as said earier above, the zero is the leading digit. Even there I don't know for sure that it would fail.
Just which horror stories have you been reading?
I have had more problems with credit cards than with ATM cards. Once, in a small restaurant in Paris, the waiter came back waving the card vigorously and making noises like a boiling tea kettle with a whistle.
We easily understood that the card was NO WORK. Hearing that, my wife rose from the table to go get money from an ATM about 100 yards away. Even though I was still seated and fumbling through my pockets and passport case trying to find my back-up card, the waiter acted like he was going to explode.
I whipped out my AE checks and laid them on the table. That calmed him down long enough for me to finish locating my second credit card. (These dam neck pouches are a pain at times.)
I handed the tea kettle my second card. It worked, and the kettle simmered down.
Ever since then I carry one credit card and my wife carries a second, different type of card.
I have no idea what was wrong with the first credit card; it worked thereafter several times.
As for my second checking account I will admit that I take advantage of my senior status. The account does not incur any out of pocket expense. The account is for travel only. Both accounts allow me two off net transactions per month. So by using both, I get 4 freebies before I need to pay. The other gambit is that some banks have working agreements with European banks so that use of your ATM card is on net. For example, last year Barclays and Bank of America were correspondent banks. I used my ATM card
in the UK just like I was at home.
I know this is more than you asked, and probably more than you wanted, but I do stress the importance of backup provisions in case of some glitch. They are few, but they do happen.
Why? I bought some traveler's checks from AAA once. The associate who sold them to me said, "We charge no fee." True, but the exchange rate was about 5% against me compared with the wholesale bank rate of exchange. So the "no fee" was not exactly "mark up free."
I have gone to Europe once a year since 1998 for periods as long as a month. I have relied almost exclusively on ATM cards and credit cards each time.
For some reason, age I suppose, I had this atavistic urge to carry American Express checks on my first trip in 1998. It was my first trip in many, many years and I was still clinging to old ideas.
Now, 2007, I have used two of them. I cashed one check in the airport in Zürich because the bank ATM machine was broken. After I figured up the exchange fee I paid, I said something naughty.
I cashed the second one that same trip when we were in a very small Swiss town and my ATM card would not work locally.
I think the machine was Cirrus only and I unfortunately was Plus only. So I had to eat another fee for cashing a second check.
Since then I have not used any of the original batch of traveler's checks. I still have some of them tucked in my passport case and they have logged about 60,000 miles or more.
What I have done is this: 1. My wife and I have 2 checking accounts and we each carry the ATM card for both of them. 2. For one of the accounts, I also carry a debit card (check card) because a couple of times my debit card worked whereas the ATM card did not. (I do not know why. Malfunction of my card or some other reason???) 3. I carry one credit card and my wife carries a second card of a different variety.
In the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere we have had no trouble getting money from an ATM since that first trip. Two explanations for that experience. Airports commonly now have several aTMs, and the use of ATM cards seems to be much more widespread and less limited to "species", e.g. Cirrus or Plus than 10 years ago.
Also I don't think the zero in the PIN will be a problem unless, as said earier above, the zero is the leading digit. Even there I don't know for sure that it would fail.
Just which horror stories have you been reading?
I have had more problems with credit cards than with ATM cards. Once, in a small restaurant in Paris, the waiter came back waving the card vigorously and making noises like a boiling tea kettle with a whistle.
We easily understood that the card was NO WORK. Hearing that, my wife rose from the table to go get money from an ATM about 100 yards away. Even though I was still seated and fumbling through my pockets and passport case trying to find my back-up card, the waiter acted like he was going to explode.
I whipped out my AE checks and laid them on the table. That calmed him down long enough for me to finish locating my second credit card. (These dam neck pouches are a pain at times.)
I handed the tea kettle my second card. It worked, and the kettle simmered down.
Ever since then I carry one credit card and my wife carries a second, different type of card.
I have no idea what was wrong with the first credit card; it worked thereafter several times.
As for my second checking account I will admit that I take advantage of my senior status. The account does not incur any out of pocket expense. The account is for travel only. Both accounts allow me two off net transactions per month. So by using both, I get 4 freebies before I need to pay. The other gambit is that some banks have working agreements with European banks so that use of your ATM card is on net. For example, last year Barclays and Bank of America were correspondent banks. I used my ATM card
in the UK just like I was at home.
I know this is more than you asked, and probably more than you wanted, but I do stress the importance of backup provisions in case of some glitch. They are few, but they do happen.
Feb 18th, 2007 | 06:59 PM
#5
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 683
Likes: 0
I have also been to Italy with a debt card with a beginning zero in the pin and never had a problem. I always carry two debt cards when I travel just in case. But I have NEVER had any trouble (knock on wood) and I go to Europe just about every summer. The first time I went to Europe I was a little freaked about the Atm/debt card thing too, but soon saw it all works fine. Go and have a wonderful time!
