Originally Posted by
wiiiim
Withdrawing money in remote places all over the world can be tricky. Which card type do you find most reliable/safe when cycling around the world?
I read that Visa used to be the most popular accepted card, but nowadays Mastercard is just about equal. And since Visa is more expensive here in Belgium, i was thinking of taking the latter.
What are your experiences?
I see you live in Europe. There was a recent article in the New York Times about the problems with using cards in Europe that are issued in the USA.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/06/12...-traveler.html
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/03...s-respond.html
A couple of years ago I lost my wallet in an airport. Fortunately, one of my card companies was willing to ship me a new card using overnight express shipping for a reasonable fee. I am glad that I had a card issued by that company, my trip continued without a hitch. I also had several hundred in cash that was not in my wallet, that came in handy until I got the new card shipped to me.
A thief got one of my credit card numbers last month immediately after I checked into a hotel in Europe a few hours after I arrived there. My card stopped working. Fortunately, I had other credit cards that I could use for the rest of my trip. Relying on one card would have been a disaster, in this case it was a minor inconvenience because I had redundancies.
In the USA, you have much better legal protection if a thief gets your credit card number than if a thief gets your debit card number. For that reason, I had not used a debit card for several years. I however recently got a debit card to use in ATMs from my credit union that had very low fees. (I do not know if they have credit unions where you live, it is similar to a bank.) They allowed me to set up a separate savings account, I could put most of my funds in that savings account and if a thief got my card number, they could not touch those funds. But, I could electronically transfer funds from that savings account into the checking account when I wanted to use the card in an ATM. Thus, if a thief got my number, they could not get very much money from me but electronically I could shift more money into the account and access that money in an ATM.
Regarding your question - which card to take, Visa or Mastercard? When I travel I take at least two credit cards, one of the card companies must be willing to express overnight ship me a new card if I need one. I also take a debit card that will work in ATMs. If there are places where Visa is more prevalent than Mastercard or the other way around, I am unaware of those places.
Unfortunately I can't get a chip and pin card in the USA unless I pay an exorbitant annual fee (Chase bank cited an annual fee of $585 for a chip and pin card), but as noted in the NY Times article, the cards may be more available in the future.