Prepaid visas are sold here, but I havent figured out a way to cash them in without commission.

Cost to buy GC, commission to cash and no points.....
MSing is only American thing?

Yes it is. If it wasn't for tourists in the country or Germans travelling abroad, there wouldn't be any credit cards. They're useless over there. Everything is debit or cash and CCs have no incentives (i.e. cash back)...

Msing is the process of multi step money rolling (from CC - to debit/Gift - to prepaid or MO - to CC payment) this is also a typical money laundering cycle, the process initiated by a CC (Bank).

American Regulatory Agency is the only one in the world turns a blind eye when the financial institutions facilities or promotes the activity, only when this gets popular and obvious they shut it down, which gives other institution opportunity to start/introduce a new product.

MSing will be possible in Germany (Europe) after they import the concept of Quantitative Easing (influx of money supply) from America. (The rumors on Thursday caused Swiss franc to unpeg Euro) MSing will facilitate QE.

I'm currently working on MSing in Germany. I'll update later on how it works out. Don't want to spill the beans prematurely. ;)

I'm in germany now, any new methods? I've just been using paypal and paying the 3% fee to meet minimum spend :(

I'll explain in more detail at a later point. Msing method that I'm using involves being a customer with at least 1 bank and you must be living in Germany to take advantage of this.

Uh, oh, the suspense is killing me! The requirements are quite unusual already...

I don't quite agree with you when you say credit cards are useless here in Germany. I've been living here quite a few years and credit card use, IMO, has become much more accepted within the last 10 years or so I'd say. Pretty much all merchants accept credit cards these days. I think that really picked up around the time Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006. Yes, you are correct about the no cash back incentives. Cash back incentives are nice indeed however, that should not be the main reason to have a credit card. ;)

Better to live by the rule that you never borrow money unless you can make a profit. Profit is the main reason to have a credit card. You just need to decide if that profit belongs to you or to your banker.:cool:

This actually seems very valuable - in the US if you buy with CC they only return on CC - Maybe this could be a good avenue for you?

Buy an expensive ring for your CC limit, and then return it - try to get a check back.

I'm not sure about the conversion rate Euro to $$, but you may have found a good avenue :)

Also check out the extent to which deposit accounts can be funded by CC.

The Euro is at a 12 year low against the U.S. Dollar. Buy a ton of Euros, hold them, and cash in for U.S. dollars when the Euro strengthens again or the dollar collapses :p

So anyone have any tips for buying foreign currency with CC, or is that a whole new discussion altogether :)?

Maybe also utilize this strategy for the ruble.

I've lived in Germany for 27 years and I've only seen a check once. When I tried to cash it at the bank, the young teller had to go to her supervisor because she apparently didn't know how to do that :)

Hehe I saw checks in our text books. And our parents sometimes paid larger stuff with those. 400 Mark per check since this was the limit anybody would take (this was actually the banks' guaranteed cashing limit). Now imagine paying for a car using like 20 checks ;-)

However, when I send money back home, I do send a US drawn check to my bank since the cost is way below what I'd pay for an overseas wire transfer.