prepaid visa
 

Could someone share experience using a prepaid visa card in Italy?

Lots of fees and costs, bad way to go.

why do you think you want/need a pre-paid visa?

Regular visa/mc credit cards and debit cards work just fine in Italy.

I know the downside to using a prepaid Visa but what are the benefits for you?

With all these comments, why are you thinking of using one? What benefit do you think you get by using this type of product?

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-paid-visa.cfm
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...d-in-spain.cfm
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtou...-may-be-worse/
https://community.ricksteves.com/tra...aid-euro-cards
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...mastercard.cfm

I am also puzzled. You seemed to have gone to Italy several times before. How did you make payments on those trips?

I live in Italy and have a prepaid Visa card that I only use for internet purchases from sites I don't know well enough to trust completely. I did use it once to withdraw cash from an ATM. What exactly did you want to know?

Two couples traveling and sharing expenses. Rather than having to always split costs of gas, food, etc. with cash or credit/debit card we thought using a prepaid card may be an option. Have used one for same purpose in US and it worked great with each couple contributing same $$ to the card.

You don't have to deal with foreign transactions fees and foreign exchange rates in US and that will make a big difference.

We just did a similar trip with 2 other couples in Canada and it wasn't that hard for each of us to either keep the recipients and use them to tally up and settle at end of trip. And this trip was for a month! It can be done with minimal effort. And we like to get points with credit cad, something you can't do with prepaid VISA card. And if it gets lost? SOL.

If you've done this before what is your question?

You have experience using the prepaid card. A credit card is a credit card no matter where you are.

I've traveled with people and shared expenses (been doing this for decades) and never had a problem splitting the costs.

Was using the prepaid card in the US any different than using a regular Visa credit card?

If you read numerous complaints with this type of product, you see significant issues:

1. It does not always work.
2. High fees for everything including clearing accounts on some cards.

There is also an acceptance issue: whether merchants take cards at all. Comparative merchants in the US take cards while Italian counterparts do not.

I think it is better to think about splitting the total cost instead of splitting each transaction.

The method you outlined is split as you go. This has operational issues. How do you handle cash only basis places? Both of you need to have enough cash every time?

Running account method mentioned above gets around nearly all the issues. Verify tracking data as you go along with each other. If you want parity between the two, if one party is seen spending more than other, let the other one make next few payments, in cash, using cc, etc. After the trip is over, do ONE balancing for the ENTIRE trip!