Best credit card to use??? What's widely accepted

Hi Jennifer,

We use Capitol One - it's a Visa card and there are no foreign transaction fees. Got it a few years ago and we generally only use this card for international travel. It's a chipped card as well.

Amex is accepted in Ireland as well as Visa and MC. But it's smart to use one that doesn't charge those fees.

Good luck.

Another thing to consider is fx fees imposed by your bank on foreign ATM withdrawals. Not only do Capital One's credit cards have no fx fees, if you open a bank account at Capital One Bank, their debit card has no fx charges when used at ATM's.

Hi, Jennifer. My usual cards -- home or abroad -- are a Delta Amex and (like Pete) a Capital One Visa. Neither has foreign transaction fees. My experience in Europe (including Ireland) is that a business that accepts credit cards will usually accept Amex but will always accept Visa/MC. So, if you want one card, I would recommend a Visa/MC.

I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It is a visa which is accepted almost everywhere they take credit cards and it has no foreign transaction fees. It also has a great rewards program. It does have an annual fee if that's a concern for you.

Philip raises a good point about debit card fees for ATM withdraws. My "regular" bank (BB&T) charges $5 for a foreign currency withdrawal at an ATM PLUS 3% of the total amount of the withdrawal. Happily, I've never paid the bank a dime for this. As Philip notes, Capital One's debit cards for online savings/checking accounts don't charge foreign ATM fees and don't charge currency conversion fees (though some of the accounts at "brick and mortar" Capital One locations have these charges). I personally use a Charles Schwab debit card. No foreign ATM transaction fees. No currency conversion fees. Unlimited reimbursement of fees charged by ATM owners (such fees are rare for bank-owned ATMs in Europe). There are fewer hoops to jump through to open a Capital One account than a Charles Schwab account, but the Charles Schwab customer service is excellent.

Amex is not accepted everywhere the way Visa and Mastercard are. I would go with a Visa or MasterCard tone on the safe side

I second Sharon's comment. Amex is much less accepted the M/C and Visa.

Visa or MasterCard definitely.

There are multiple cards out there today with no foreign exchange fees. Many of those also have no other fees as well. The closest thing I have found to avoiding all fees is a Capital One credit card (Visa) for all purchases combined with a Capital One 360 Debit card (MasterCard) to get cash when needed from ATMs. The best thing about both of these is it is super easy to open both online, and funding the checking account that the debit card is attached to is all done online as well through funds transfers that are free as long as they are done from the 360 end (your bank may still charge for the transaction where the money comes from, check with them). The 360 account is truly as close to zero fees for getting cash from an ATM as possible and they charge the Google rate with no markup and has worked everywhere in Europe I have been over the past 12 years.

Thanks everyone. We went with a capital one card. Always appreciate the help on this forum. Now we will book our airfare with the card so we can get our bonus miles to use to pay for rental car 😉