Originally Posted by
jschner
4. Should a prudent traveler carry both?
I always travel with at least 3 cards (Visa, MC, Amex). In Beijing 3 weeks ago the hotel I checked into was having credit card validation problems and could not process my AMEX (2% forex, 2% rebate). Rather than give them my Visa (2% forex, 1% rebate), they let me come back the next day and they manually processed the card with a card imprinter.
I have a Mastercard along but as it charges a 3% forex rate it's the last card I was use outside the U.S., but I like the peace of mind in having an extra card along.
I find myself using my ATM card more and more these days because I'm not charged for foreign transactions and they don't surcharge the exchange rates. That doesn't work well for hotel bills, but is fine for daily spending money as I'm out walking about. I can recall at least twice over the years that the ATM card would not work, though, probably because of network issues. In one of those cases I got cash out using a credit card.
Visa advertised throughout the Beijing Olympics that Visa was the ONLY card accepted there.
I used my Visa card once, on the last day, for a visit to the Superstore gift store. There weren't really any other venues on the Olympic grounds there to use it at (there weren't any ticket windows to buy event tickets). A bottle of water was 45 cents, and a Coke 60 cents, so folks weren't breaking out the credit cards for those.