credit cards and ATMs in England

You probably already know this but be sure to notify both your credit card companies and your bank, if you plan to take an ATM card, of the dates of your travels. We email AND call them and then remind them a week or so prior to travel. Visa once blocked ours even though we had notified them. Clerks sometimes take breaks and then forget all about your notifications. We purchase well in advance tickets to various UK or European destinations for trains, theater, or daily tours so we have to notify our credit card company prior to advance purchases. I just had good old Visa block a Eurostar ticket purchase last week, despite being notified of advance purchases. Maybe they need to fire that clerk...... :-)

It is NOT common for mag stripe cards to be refused. You won't have any problem with your regular cards. As long as your debit card has a VISA or Mastercard logo on it, it will be accepted at any ATM that carries that logo.

I would limit how much cash you bring with you. Many people like to buy $100-200 worth of pounds before leaving for convenience and comfort, but the premium to buy currency in the US is 5-10%. Check with your own bank, but most banks only charge 1-3% for using an ATM. As noted, your credit card will work just fine. The exceptions tend to be automated gas stations and ticket machines. If you give it to a person to process, it will work.

To add to George's post - we now have the person at the place who's plastic we are taking repeat back to us the information we just gave them after Chase (not with them anymore) blocked the use of their ATM cards in Ireland saying later that we did not tell them we were going to Ireland. That was the only country we went to that trip. We also take a second ATM card from a different financial institution to use as a back-up just in case anything goes wrong with the first ATM card, like happened with Chase.
We do not take any European currency with us when going there. We use ATMs in our final arrival airport to get what we need for starters.

Thanks all for the advice and suggestions. I love this site!

We went to London for three weeks in 2010 and took our Bank of America debit card. There was a Barclays Bank with an ATM located between our flat and the bus stop. Barclays has a deal with BofA to allow cash withdrawals with no fees. It worked great. Definitely call and tell your card company that you're going.

Last year we spent three weeks in England and Scotland, using a credit card for most dinners and such. Only one small restaurant in Wales couldn't take it because it wasn't chip-and-pin. Though it's a shame that US banks and merchants haven't converted to this safer system, your primitive US card should work almost anywhere in Britain. We've had no ATM problems with our Chase debit card (Master Card) in Britain or France. We let them know we're traveling and the card works there (maybe we're just lucky).

You might need a chip & PIN card a for rail or bus ticket dispensing machine, but not for an ATM. Before you leave, be sure to notify your bank and cc companies of your travel dates and countries to be visited. You might want to raise your debit card withdrawal limit for that period as well. Most UK ATM's don't charge for using them, in fact, they make this known right on the machine, so making more but smaller withdrawals will keep you from having to carry too much cash. If your current debit and credit cards charge for their use, you have plenty of time to check out other banks or credit unions.