Using US credit cards in Europe

We were in Spain for 2 weeks last month and had no problems whatsoever with our Visa cards in shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. We did not rent a car, so we did not have to deal with toll booths or gas stations, which do cause problems for some, at least in France as reported here.

I was in the UK, France and Portugal in March. I had no problems with ATMs, or with hotels and restaurants, but as I expected, I was unable to use my credit card in the ticket machines at Nice train station.

We were in Paris in December of 2010, and had only one problem with our card. Having read these threads, I am now thinking that we must have been at a restaurant that only accepted the chip cards. That being said.... that was our ONLY problem using our US cards. So - I don't know. What I can say is that we've not had our cards rejected.... and that was as recently as 6 months ago.

I was in Spain, France, Italy and Germany this spring. I got back May 31st. and didn't have any trouble with credit cards or debit cards.

Lydia, we were in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria last month and I can think of only one time that my husband had trouble with his MasterCard, at a German gas station. I offered my Visa, and it went right through. Both cards just have magnetic strips.

The only places I have seen it be an issue are unatended gas pumps and public bicycle rentals.

I used my cards in Italy last month with no problems. (I have no idea why the poster above (a) bothered with travelers checks or (b) expected them to take US Dollars or Traveler's checks. Do the resturants in your town take Euros or Traveler's checks in Euros? They don't where I live! )

We've used swipe-only credit and debit cards in Britain and France with little trouble. One small restaurant in Wales couldn't take our credit card last month. I understand from RS guidebooks and elsewhere that swipe cards don't work in machines that sell tickets or gas or take tolls, but there are always staffed alternatives that will take them. I wouldn't hesitate to take a credit card and debit card to Europe (with proper precautions, like notifying the issuer before traveling, keeping the numbers in a separate place, and having backups with a companion). ATMs are clearly the best way to get cash, and most places take credit cards for significant purchases. The chip-and-pin cards used in Europe are safer for the cardholder because harder to use fraudulently. Canada also uses them, I understand. US banks and merchants will probably start using them when the costs of fraud (including customer complaints) outweigh the cost of converting to machines that take them. Given the size of our economy, which induces complacency, this may take a long time.

We are in England and are having trouble with American Express, Visa, and Mastercard because not having some chip... we did manage to use it at a restaurant for dinner. We had to use an ATM, which they call a 'hole in the wall' which I did not want to do in order to avoid banking fees... They would not take US dollars or checks or travelers checks. My advice is to have some type of that country's monies as a backup... We did manage to use our credit card at the grocery store but they fussed a bit... they have no 7-11....We also used it to get train tickets at Nationalrail.co.uk at the train station.. Tomorrow (Monday) I will exchange some traveler's checks (enough for meals for 2- 3 days) at the bank, and see how it goes. Prior to our trip, we paid for our lodging on-line and most travel fares on-line as well, so we could avoid this problem.... (after a horrible experience in Japan and credit cards).
Our problem is that we are going to different countries and did not want to have to pay all the exchange fees twice with any left-over money....hope this helps. Happy and Safe traveling...

"they would not take US dollars or checks" - why on earth would you expect them to? I guess you didn't read all the posts here, and the advice in the guidebooks, to plan to use ATMs, and to get a bank account with no/low fees if you bank at somewhere like Wachovia.

We just got back last Thursday after being in Belgium, Italy and Croatia and had no problems whatsoever using credit and debit cards, with one exception. My Master card worked in Croatia but 2 different friends tried using their Visa cards and they would not work in that country. We never did figure out why. My advise is to have one of each. An aside, several times in Italy I saw/overheard people checking out the exchange rates at the exchange kiosks and going in to exchange their travelers checks. Can't figure that one out either!

Why would you expect businesses to take dollars? Would whatever businesses you are associated with at home accept somebody showing up and paying with British Pounds?

US Dollars were a last resort when they would not take any of the three US credit cards. The products had been wrapped and ready to go and we had previously (as soon as we got in the shop) asked if they took credit cards. They said they did take credit cards. At this point, we did not know the different types of credit cards. Good point and good question, Lydia!
As for the traveler's checks.. we always use these... as if they are lost or stolen, we can get the money back as the bank keeps the serial numbers.

@sil: If you don't want to use an ATM because you're worried about fees, I'm not sure why you're so keen on TCs, which have been obsolete in Europe (not everywhere in Asia) for some time. You get the best exchange rate at an ATM, and if you have the right bank, minimal fees.

The only trouble that I've had with credit cards were with gas purchases and expensive purchases. These raised a red flag with the CC company, even though I had contacted their security department before I departed.