Do I Need A Visa card in Europe

[Busman723]

We Are traveling to England, Ireland, Iceland, and Scotland. I do most my traveling in North America using my Amer5ican Express card. I do not have a Visa Or Master Card. Should I get a Visa card or can I just use my American Express Card?

Thanks

[CruiserBruce]

Amex might be a bit less widely accepted in Europe. Used to be lightly accepted...that has improved.

 

Visa or MC is accepted everywhere.

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, Busman723 said:

We Are traveling to England, Ireland, Iceland, and Scotland. I do most my traveling in North America using my Amer5ican Express card. I do not have a Visa Or Master Card. Should I get a Visa card or can I just use my American Express Card?

Thanks

I wouldn't depend on American Express alone.

[edinburgher]

1 hour ago, Busman723 said:

Should I get a Visa card

Absolutely.  as above,Visa is everywhere.

 

Some establishments don't accept AMEX at all, I believe it to be  due to the higher (than Visa)  "merchant fees" which AMEX charge them, so relying on only an AMEX card would be risky.

Edited August 7, 2023 by edinburgher

[Harters]

Quite a number of British businesses choose not to accept Amex. I would get a Visa or Mastercard. 

[VMax1700]

Amex is just about useless in Ireland except for hotels within larger hotel chains.  Most retail stores, restaurants etc will only accept Visa/Mastercard

[waterbug123]

Our experience in Europe is this:

Visa is accepted virtually everywhere

Mastercard is very widely accepted but there are places that only take Visa

American Express is usually accepted at large hotels and elsewhere more widely than it used to be, but there are still a LOT of places that won't take it.  I would definitely get a Visa to have as a back up.

[John Bull]

My experience is that if an outlet accepts cards it accepts both Visa & M/C.

Amex & Diners are widely accepted in tourist outlets in central London but acceptance is very very sketchy elsewhere.

Defo get yourselves at least one Visa or M/C. And since that's for foreign travel, get one with no foreign exchange fees. Which in turn reminds me - don't allow outlets to charge you in USD, always but always keep the charge as billed in local currency & allow the card issuer to convert to USD at a far better exchange rate.

 

JB 🙂

[waterbug123]

On 8/8/2023 at 12:47 PM, John Bull said:

My experience is that if an outlet accepts cards it accepts both Visa & M/C.

 

Defo get yourselves at least one Visa or M/C.

 

JB 🙂

Again though, we have been places that took only Visa (primarily in Italy).  We have never been anywhere that took only MC.  So if you're getting a new card and deciding between the two, I'd get Visa.

[Meander Ingwa]

I like my Capitol One VISA for its excellent international fraud protection alone.  Great human one on one service when things go sideways.  It is easy to build points and use their travel debt eraser to wipe expenses off your bill.

[lisiamc]

On 8/7/2023 at 10:59 PM, VMax1700 said:

Amex is just about useless in Ireland except for hotels within larger hotel chains.  Most retail stores, restaurants etc will only accept Visa/Mastercard

Yes, we just had a week on land in Ireland, and shop chains that accept Amex in the UK (Lidl for one) and many hotels, don’t accept it in Ireland. A second credit card, either Visa or MasterCard is going to be very helpful