(off topic not car related) credit cards overseas

[Swadeness]

Since all of you guys in this sub forum always give solid advice I thought I\'d post this here. Who do you guys prefer to use for your credit card company over there? Stateside I prefer to put everything on one card and pay it off regularly. I love my Citi card for this with its low rate and great cash rewards but once I get overseas the foreign exchange fee will be a killer. Right now it looks like the capital one cards will waive the exchange fees but their interest rates suck. What do you guys use? Is it better to just use your no fee debit card (USAA) and say goodbye to the cash rewards? I\'m sure some of you have got living overseas down to a science so as always I\'m trying to shorten my learning curve.

Thanks
Wade

[Rikx1M]

I'm sitting here in cinque terra, italy and hotel bill is 530 euros...pay cash as most places don't take credit cards anyway...the entire vacation is in cash. I love it and my cc bills are super low for the first time in years.

At home station, I use credit maybe once/twice a month...mainly for stuff I order from the USA... I use usaa cc. Everything here is cash or bank debit from a German bank.

[BrokenVert]

Tagging onto this. I'm going abroad for the year coming up a week from Wednesday. I have a discover card and a visa and I'm not sure what to do with them.


Living in London until june

[Elsabor67]

Cash definetly helps and when you're off base, always haev a VAT form so you don't have to pay the 19%tax germans pay. Most all places take credit and you can also use your debit cards no problem, but cash is better.

BV, on the london part, it would be hard ot say since most of us are in Germany. But it would be safe to say that you can use the same concept, specially since the Pound is more expensive than the Euro and twice the value as the dollar.

[Dackelone]

I have "Service Credit Union" www.servicecu.org/index.asp - for my bank. When you use the VISA check card they only charge you a 1% foriegn fee. That is 1% of that transaction.

For when I need cash in euros... any of the ATM's on post have both US dollars and Euros. But I prefer to withdraw my euros from a German ATM (like a Spar Kasse, ect) bc the euro conversion rates are better.

Also with Service C.U. you can get a "EC card". It works like a check card, but the card has a SMART chip imbed into it. Many places in Europe only take cash or maybe EC card. And when you do find a place that takes CC's.. it is most always MasterCard instead of VISA. It would be wise to have both VISA and MC and maybe get a EC card too from one of the banks on Base over here.

[FDM68]

Originally Posted by Rikx135

I'm sitting here in cinque terra, italy and hotel bill is 530 euros...pay cash as most places don't take credit cards anyway...the entire vacation is in cash. I love it and my cc bills are super low for the first time in years.

At home station, I use credit maybe once/twice a month...mainly for stuff I order from the USA... I use usaa cc. Everything here is cash or bank debit from a German bank.

Cinque Terra is deinatly my favorite place in Italy. Anyways I pay Euro off base and debit on base for the most part.

[Mr Kleen]

I use my Capitol One mastercard if they accept "American" credit cards, cash if they don't. No foreign transaction fee with the CapOne card and the 1% cash back helps offset the horrible exchange rate.

[Swadeness]

Great info guys, you mentioned some things that I would never have thought of. It looks like regardless of the card I always need to have the cash option. I forgot about those different exchange rates on/off base. I think I got burned on that once while I was in Spain for a few days, along with a restaurant that wouldn't take my CC. It think the most important part I took from your guys advice is to have options (cash, ATM, and CC). Right now that Capital One card still looks like a great CC option, I'll look into sevice cu a little more and give USAA a call to get some clarification on how their off base ATM and point of sale fees work. Normally when I travel I'll use cash since I'm only in country for a few days at a time so maybe I'll just do that for awhile when I get there and use the cards sparingly. That will give me some time to really see how those fees are going to show up on the statements.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by Swadeness

Great info guys, you mentioned some things that I would never have thought of...

One other thing is... when you pay in cash/euros you can most of the time get a 3% discount from big dept stores (like for furniture or TVs or what have you). Plus since your active-duty... you can go onbase to the MWR office... and pay $4 (each per form)for a German VAT form. This will let you buy most any goods in Germany without having to pay the 19% sales tax.

You can use these forms for up to 2.500 euro purchases. For iteims over 2,500 euros - its a little more involved in that you have to have a check made out to MWR and the store. Like for a euro spec car or some other large purchase.

Most shops in Germany take these VAT forms. They come in very handy. The German store/vendor does not have to accept these VAT forms... but most do. Then you save 19% right off the bat.

[Elsabor67]

Swad, when do you finally arrive?

[Swadeness]

Late Oct. I've got FTD/training stateside from now till then.

[Rikx1M]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

Tagging onto this. I'm going abroad for the year coming up a week from Wednesday. I have a discover card and a visa and I'm not sure what to do with them.


Living in London until june

Leave the discover at home...don't think I've seen many places over here that accepts that card

[ND40oz]

Originally Posted by Mr Kleen

I use my Capitol One mastercard if they accept "American" credit cards, cash if they don't. No foreign transaction fee with the CapOne card and the 1% cash back helps offset the horrible exchange rate.

+1, use Capitol One for everything when traveling, I hate carrying cash around. I haven't found many places that don't accept a swipe credit card except for the occasional gas station that's pay at the pump and you have to have a chip and pin card.

[BrokenVert]

Originally Posted by Rikx135

Leave the discover at home...don't think I've seen many places over here that accepts that card

Yeah nobody takes discover. It was the first CC I got myself while in college and I only keep it now for gas stations. It's a pretty solid 5% back on gas