Text 17704, 49 rader
Skriven 2014-10-04 00:47:10 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
  Kommentar till text 17638 av Michael Loo (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: countering & acting
===============================
 -=> On 10-03-14  00:47,  Michael Loo <=-
 -=> spoke to Nancy Backus about countering & acting 41 <=-


 MLoo> Traveler's checks are tough to use.
 NB> I used to use travelers checks, but that was back in the 80s, and I've
 NB> heard since that it's increasingly hard to find places to accept them

Four decades ago, when I first went to Europe, I was told that travelers
checks were much better than cash for exchanges.  It was true then.

 NB> nowadays, with plastic so much more in evidence....

 ML> Though it's harder to use a US credit card in Europe, as
 ML> we use the stripe and signature or at best the chip and
 ML> signature system, whereas the rest of the world has gone
 ML> to the chip and PIN. At the train stations, for example,
 ML> I can't use the ticket automat but must go to an actual
 ML> manned window, and sometimes even that doesn't work.

We were told that our stripe and signature cards would be essentially
useless at most places, so we got a AAA BOA chip card -- which we then
found out was also a signature card.  We had no occasion to use any of
our cards at any place other than shops, restaurants and ATM machines --
so I cannot address the train situation.  BUT, we ended up never using
the AAA BOA card at all.  We used our normal TFCU credit and debit cards
everywhere.


 ML> Tell that to my card issuer. I still get zinged with 3%
 ML> foreign transaction fee, which every couple years someone
 ML> decides is usurious or otherwise unjust, so the bank gets
 ML> sued, and I get a check for half of it. This has happened
 ML> twice so far, and I don't understand why they don't halve
 ML> the fee and save us both money.

The fee charged me by TFCU is 1%.  I think that the BOA card would have
been 3% or more.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) verizon (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 00:54:27, 04 Oct 2014
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