Credit Cards in Bermuda

[theump]

not that I am planning on using a credit card but always like to have one authorized when traveling.  Does places in Bermuda except American Express?

 

The Ump

John

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, theump said:

not that I am planning on using a credit card but always like to have one authorized when traveling.  Does places in Bermuda except American Express?

 

The Ump

John

Some do but many don’t take AMEX.  So if you are only bringing one it should it not be AMEX.  Most only take MasterCard and Visa. Discover is not accepted. 

[princeton123211]

4 hours ago, theump said:

Does places in Bermuda except American Express?

We've never had a major issue with Amex. It's gotten much better over the past 10 or so years to the point where more take it than don't. All major hotels and restaurants will take Amex-- its the smaller mom and pop establishments that are the holdouts. 

[CookieShip]

MC/Visa would be better bets, not to say they don't take Amex. We used one at the Dockyard Pharmacy last week, but there are many places even in the US that don't take Amex. I certainly wouldn't rely on it while traveling. 

[Waquoit]

19 hours ago, CookieShip said:

MC/Visa would be better bets, not to say they don't take Amex. We used one at the Dockyard Pharmacy last week, but there are many places even in the US that don't take Amex. I certainly wouldn't rely on it while traveling. 

But Amex doesn't have international surcharges. Others vary.

[njhorseman]

32 minutes ago, Waquoit said:

But Amex doesn't have international surcharges. Others vary.

Some AMEX cards have international surcharges.

[princeton123211]

On 10/16/2019 at 7:04 PM, CookieShip said:

MC/Visa would be better bets, not to say they don't take Amex.

I think the whole "Amex isn't widely accepted overseas" thing is a bit of a holdover myth at this point. I use Amex as my main credit card and travel outside of the country frequently. I have a Visa as a backup in case but its pretty rare at this point that I cant use the Amex. 

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, princeton123211 said:

I think the whole "Amex isn't widely accepted overseas" thing is a bit of a holdover myth at this point. I use Amex as my main credit card and travel outside of the country frequently. I have a Visa as a backup in case but its pretty rare at this point that I cant use the Amex. 

 

Not widely accepted would probably be a myth but there are more merchants that don''t take it compared to MC and Visa. I bring my Amex card overseas but I have found merchants that don't take it. I don't confine my lodgings and narrow the restaurants down to the major ones. I do prefer to use the Amex overseas since the merchants can't try the dynamic currency scam but I bring two other cards, a Visa and MC as back-up. The OP asked about bringing one card and that card being an Amex. They should not take one card. In London my Amex was declined at the London Eye, they sent me an email link to verify which I got but the link would not load from that location. So I used a MC I had with me as a back up. When I got out of the area the link loaded. In Brugge at a place that did not take Amex my MC was declined even though I had given them a travel notice so I used the Visa card.

 

I would not go to Bermuda with one card be it Amex or a MC/Visa and certainly would not depend on an Amex there because I do shop at small merchants. But even some major places don't. Some examples of where they were not taking Amex in Bermuda this summer, they were not taking Amex at the Horseshoe Bay concession and they were not taking Amex at the kiosk that sells transportion passes. 

[Oceandi]

Charles-

What is the "currency scam"? I'm  leaving tomorrow for Bermuda. Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, Oceandi said:

Charles-

What is the "currency scam"? I'm  leaving tomorrow for Bermuda. Thanks

 

 

It is when a merchant or ATM in a foreign country converts the local currency to USD at point of sale. As opposed to letting your Credit Card charge go thru in the local currency and having your Credit Card company do the exchange. They are supposed to ask. Some merchants don't ask and run the conversion. Other merchants offer to convert and make it sound like something you would want to agree to do. The merchants want to do the conversion because they get a large mark up. So if it happens you get an extra charge, and usually a bad exchange rate. I don't recall ever being offered point of sale conversion in Bermuda.  In Europe and Mexico I have had merchants try to push it on me and many ATMs will have it as an option. I always decline and purchase in the local currency.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Charles4515

[njhorseman]

55 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I don't recall ever being offered point of sale conversion in Bermuda. 

No doubt because the Bermudian dollar is on par with the US dollar, so there's really no conversion to do. 

Edited October 21, 2019 by njhorseman