[net.consumers] Credit Cards in Europe

wjm@whuxl.UUCP (MITCHELL) (10/26/84)

Having just returned from 3 weeks in France, Italy, W. Germany, Austria,
and Switzerland, hence my absence from the USENET, here are my observations
about credit cards in Europe.
Amex is widely accepted both by hotels and restaurants and by shops in all the
cities I visited.  Diners Club is also accepted by  many hotels and restaurants.
Visa and MC are also accepted fairly widely - Visa more so in France, MC (or
Eurocard as its called there) more so in Germany and slightly more so in Italy.
Forget any other credit cards, although I suspect that oil company outlets (e.g.
Shell and Exxon affiliates) may accept their US credit cards.
BTW Amex has cards whose "home currency" is not US dollars - the 3rd & 4th
digits of an Amex acct # (after the '37' which tell that this is an Amex
card) tell 1) the home currency of the card holder, 2) whether it is  a personal
or corporate account, and 3) whether it is a Green Card or a Gold Card
They may also tell other things that I don't know about.
Regards,
Bill Mitchell (whuxl!wjm)

2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) (10/28/84)

****                                                                 ****
From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA aluxe!2141smh

> Forget any other credit cards, although I suspect that oil company outlets (e.g.
> Shell and Exxon affiliates) may accept their US credit cards.

In 4 trips to Europe and driving through all countries of western Europe I have
never run across a gas station that would accept credit cards.  Also I have not
run across any place that would accept Diner's club and not AmEx, Visa, or
Master Charge.  With the last 3 you can go anywhere.

kiessig@idi.UUCP (Rick Kiessig) (10/30/84)

> In 4 trips to Europe and driving through all countries of western Europe I have
> never run across a gas station that would accept credit cards.  Also I have not
> run across any place that would accept Diner's club and not AmEx, Visa, or
> Master Charge.  With the last 3 you can go anywhere.

	I don't know where you were travelling, but in Germany and
Switzerland, at least, nearly every gas station takes Visa or M/C.
(They also have some neat self-serve stations where you feed paper
money into little machines -- wish we had them in Calif.).  And
I have had no trouble getting the major oil companies to take
my made-in-America gas credit cards - Texaco, Chevron, etc.

	And I have indeed run into a restaurant which ONLY took
Diner's Club.  And a clothing store which only took Diner's Club
or Eurocard.

	If I had to pick a single card to use in Europe, I would
suggest VISA, followed by Amex, followed by Diner's Club - based
on my experiences (i.e. I have no idea about France, Spain or Greece).

Rick
-- 
Rick Kiessig
{decvax, ucbvax}!sun!idi!kiessig
{akgua, allegra, amd, burl, cbosgd, decwrl, dual, ihnp4}!idi!kiessig
Phone: 408-996-2399

jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) (10/30/84)

I have always been able to use my AmEx card in Europe but was surprised
to find it useless on a trip to Saudi Arabia.  I don't mean at some
restaurant or hotel, I mean at the airline ticket office.  Saudi only
has one airline, Air Saudi, no others permitted.  Had to get a travel
advance from my employer's local office.

So, if you are traveling outside Europe, indeed anywhere not regularly
visited by tourists, check before traveling there.  In Saudi you could
probably get away with carrying cash as the crime rate is very low.  Of
course you can still lose things.

I probably could have arranged something thru a bank, or just payed for
a ticket to Europe instead of all the way back to the states but don't
expect to show up at the airport, charge a ticket, and fly.  They don't
sell tickets at the airport anyway.  You have to pick them up ahead of
time as they must get your travel approved.

					    Jerry Aguirre
{hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerry

jimb@amd.UUCP (Jim Budler) (10/31/84)

> (They also have some neat self-serve stations where you feed paper
> money into little machines -- wish we had them in Calif.).  And

They had these in Southern California a while ( ~6 yrs??) ago, but
found that someone was *eroxing dollar bills and using them.  They
pulled the machines back out.  I would have thought that the technology
would have improved beyond that by now.

Maybe "once burned, twice shy".
-- 
 Jim Budler
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
 (408) 982-6547
 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd!jimb
 Compuserve ID: 72415,1200

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thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas) (10/31/84)

In article <474@aluxe.UUCP> 2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) writes:
>In 4 trips to Europe and driving through all countries of western Europe I have
>never run across a gas station that would accept credit cards.

In France this summer, I saw many gas stations that advertised that they
would accept "Carte Bleue" (the French version of VISA).  But they
wouldn't take my VISA, of course.

=S

gam@amdahl.UUCP (Gordon A. Moffett) (11/03/84)

> = Rick Kiessig
>
> 	If I had to pick a single card to use in Europe, I would
> suggest VISA, followed by Amex, followed by Diner's Club - based
> on my experiences (i.e. I have no idea about France, Spain or Greece).

I spent 10 days in Paris this summer and found Visa, MC and Amex
equally common (Amex slightly less so, but I still used Amex for
the whole trip).
-- 
(It's only a model)

Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,nsc}!amdahl!gam

[ This is just me talking. ]

eager@amd.UUCP (Mike Eager) (11/20/84)

> 
> > (They also have some neat self-serve stations where you feed paper
> > money into little machines -- wish we had them in Calif.).  And
> 
> They had these in Southern California a while ( ~6 yrs??) ago, but
> found that someone was *eroxing dollar bills and using them.  They
> pulled the machines back out.  I would have thought that the technology
> would have improved beyond that by now.

One thing about European currency -- it has different colors and different
sizes.  US currency is much harder to identify.  There is a proposal at the 
Treasury to convert to a more "secure" (not counterfitable, easier identifiable)
currency.  Who knows what will happen.   No more Greenbacks!

mikey@trsvax.UUCP (11/22/84)

There are some Texaco station in South Carolina along I-95 that are
unattended at night and you go up and insert a 1 or a 5 dollar bill
and it will pump gas.  They don't give change.  I used one of these 
stations back in 1975.

mikey at trsvax

al@hpfclq.UUCP (al) (12/17/84)

On a trip to Germany in 1983, I found I was almost never able to use
a credit card for *meals*.  About half of the hotels (well, maybe they
weren't exactly big hotels) didn't recognize anything other than cash.
My conclusion was: if you get off the beaten path *at all*, carry
cash; anything else was useless.

I even had one waitress stare at me like I was from Mars when she 
was offered an Amex card -- she'd never seen one before.  In case 
you think it's just because I don't speak German, it's not; my 
German's good enough the tour guides kept giving me the German 
version of the guidebooks!

al stone
csu-cs!hpfcla!al