Debit Cards
 

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone out there knows anything about using French debit cards in the US? I am currently living in France and get paid to my French bank account, thus I need access to that money while I am on a 2 week vacation back home in the US. Does anyone know if they will work in America? I suppose I can ask my bank, but it's the weekend and you know how that goes in France!! Just wondering for some personal experience...
Thanks in advance

I cannot answer about using your debit card here, but can comment that if you use a debit card for car rental or hotel charges, many companies now reserve a premium above your actual charges until your bill is settled. For example, if you are renting a car and the fee is going to be $400, they may reserve $600 until you settle. At hotels, the premium is for anticipated room charges. If you are paying $100 a night, they hotel might reserve $130 a night. Although they advise that the credit for the excess reserve could take up to 28 days to return to your account, my experience is that it's usually same day.

Using a credit card avoids this policy.

I am Canadian and cannot use my Canadian debit card in the US even thought it is an international bank so I would imagine it is the same. However you can use your bank card at an ATM and get cash as you need it - you just can't use it directly to pay for items etc.

traveller69, I'm just curious. Does your debit card have the Visa logo?

or MasterCard?

I don't understand how the card would not work if it's either Visa or MC branded.

Of course, a French debit card will work in the U.S. You probably have a chip and pin card (that's irrelevant in the U.S.), but you can use the "credit" option when paying for something in the U.S., and then sign. It should work just fine as long as you are part of one of the big international networks. If not, then it might not work, but that's highly unlikely.

If you do somehow run into problems, then simply take money from an ATM and pay with cash. But you can use a debit for payment virtually everywhere in the U.S.

I can't speak for going the other way, but I have used an American debit card to get Canadian dollars, British pounds, and European euros -- all with no problem. The key feature is to find an ATM that is connected to your card's system. This is usually either Visa or MasterCard.

I should mention that the number of places in either the U.S. or Europe where you can NOT use credit cards is becoming smaller and smaller every day. For two weeks in the U.S., you could EASILY avoid using cash even once.