Originally Posted By rockcow1 Only a few weeks to go until our DLP/Paris trip. At DLP we will charge everything to our room and pay once with our Visa(no conversion fees). Just wanted to know how easy is it to use a US issued visa at restaurants and shops in Paris? I would love to use it as much as possible for larger purchases. I do intend to use cash for small ticket items.
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Only a few weeks to go until our DLP/Paris trip. At DLP we will charge everything to our room and pay once with our Visa(no conversion fees). Just wanted to know how easy is it to use a US issued visa at restaurants and shops in Paris? I would love to use it as much as possible for larger purchases. I do intend to use cash for small ticket items.
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Only a few weeks to go until our DLP/Paris trip. At DLP we will charge everything to our room and pay once with our Visa(no conversion fees). Just wanted to know how easy is it to use a US issued visa at restaurants and shops in Paris? I would love to use it as much as possible for larger purchases. I do intend to use cash for small ticket items.<< As an American who lived in Europe for 6 years, I will say it is very easy to use US issued credit cards in Europe. The only thing to keep in mind is most banks and credit cards, charge a fee for foreign transactions, my bank charged 1% for everything I purchased in foreign currency. It is something to keep in mind and research ahead of time so you have no surprises.
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Thanks William! Our Capital One Visa has no extra charges or fees, so that is the one I want to use as often as possible.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I agree that it's pretty easy to use an American credit card (well, Visa at least). Especially if you don't have a foreign transaction fee of any kind, it is definitely worth doing, since you'll get a good exchange rate through the bank, rather than at a currency exchange (similarly, use an ATM to get cash whenever possible). You may find that some smaller restaurants aren't equipped to handle credit cards without a chip in them, so it's always a good idea to carry some cash as a backup.
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Debit cards have a pin, credit cards do not. I don't know about a chip.
Originally Posted By dagobert My Austrian Visa card works with signature. It has a chip but no pin code. My Maestro card works with pin code. Both cards worked fine in the US. However not all US supermarkets accepted my Maestro card. I think a Maestro card is the same like a debit card. It takes the money from my bank account right after paying.
Originally Posted By u k fan I have a credit card and a maestro (debit) card and both have chip and pin. It's standard for all UK cards to be chip and pin. I haven't seen a non chip & pin card in years. It always amused me on US tv shows when parents would give their kids their credit card - that would never have happened in the uk as stores would not take a credit card from anyone other than the card holder. In fact chip and pin has made that less so - I often use my dad's card to buy his shopping now as he has trouble using the pin machines!!!
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Now most stores here only take the card from the card holder. They are suppose to check the name on the card with your id. I also did my dad's shopping. He lived with me and he put me on his account so I could do his shopping with his debit card. Made life easier!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I heard a story on the radio this morning about some folks who hacked into some banking software, and were able to steal about $45,000,000 using the US-style magnetic strips that can easily be reprogrammed. The discussion immediately turned to how this could have been prevented if we used the chips like the rest of the world. Made me think of this thread!
Originally Posted By rockcow1 So funny, I saw that too, and thought of this conversation! We totally need to change to that if it can stop that form of theft. Don't know why we haven't.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>So funny, I saw that too, and thought of this conversation! We totally need to change to that if it can stop that form of theft. Don't know why we haven't.<<< It's in the news over here as well. My Visa doesn't require a pin code since it works with a signature, but the machine needs to read the chip of the card to do the transaction. So is it easier to reprogram the magnetic strip than the chip? The USA likes their traditions, so I'm not sure if you will change your cards. I mean you still have the imperial measuring system, only Myanmar and an African country still uses that instead of metric. Are cheques still popular in the US? At least I had that impression when we lived in Ohio in 2007. Our electric and gas company wanted to be paid by cheque and the rental company as well. Over here you give them the bank account number and they take the money from my bank account.
Originally Posted By u k fan Personal cheques are no longer accepted in most UK stores. They're really just used by businesses now!!!
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Lots of stores here don't accept personal checks anymore. Especially mom and pop stores. We own a small store and only accept checks from the few local towns. We live in a small town in Colorado but get a lot of tourists. Most big companies want you to pay bills by automatic payments. Where you sign up for payments to be automatically withdrawn from your bank account. They also stress the "green" aspect of paying that way. No paper statement being sent to you. If you don't pay that way you can still send a check to pay your bill or pay by phone.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>So is it easier to reprogram the magnetic strip than the chip?<< I'm not sure exactly how it works, but any card with a magnetic strip (credit card, hotel key, Disney park ticket, etc) can be reprogrammed to 'become' any other card. You just need the machine that does it, which is fairly small and inexpensive, and can be seen behind the desk at most hotels. Just type in the right code, swipe the card like you're doing a transaction, and it's reprogrammed. I believe the chips are given a unique identity when they are created, so they cannot be reprogrammed. I'm sure that the bad guys will eventually find a way around that, but for now it seems to be a much more secure way of doing business
Originally Posted By dagobert Thanks FerretAfros for clarifying. Both my Maestro and Visa cards have a chip. I prefer the Maestro, because of the pin code. The Visa only requires a sinature and that's easy to fake.
