My wife is in London UK for a week, but I have her Credit Card. She has 30 pounds in cash on her. Which won’t be enough because she will need to purchase a train ticket to Gatwick, as well as bus/tube ticket to get to Victoria station. Also food etc.
She has her bank card, but is unsure if she can use it as she could in Canada, as we don’t know if they accept it. Of course, she can just try and see, but that could make for an awkward situation if she can’t and doesn’t have enough cash on her. She dislikes doing dishes :).
So can she use her debit(bank) card at point of payment machines? Interac/debit/etc is ALL over in Canada, but not in the US so we don’t know how common it is worldwide. Thanks for the help
ETA: Yes she can take out Cash from an ATM/bank machine/cashpoint what have you, but that will leave her with extra pounds inevitably and we would prefer to avoid that if possible
If it has a Mastercard “Cirrus” symbol or a Visa “Plus” on it, then she should be good to go. Point of payment machines are extremely widespread in the UK.
Well if embarrassment is really that big an issue, she should take out enough cash to pay whatever the next bill is and then try the card. That way, if the card fails she can pay with cash and there’s no embarrassment.
Or she could just call the bank that issued the card and… ask. Is there a reason you haven’t done that yet?
It is not a Visa or Mastercard branded debit card. In that no where does it say Visa or Mastercard on it, not like you get commonly in the US. I will ask her about the Cirrus and Plus symbol.
Yes, she could take out cash, but that is what we are trying to avoid. No, its not “that” big a deal, but it would be annoying.
Yes we called the bank, it was the 1st thing we did, however they were of no use. They said they could not tell us what businesses would accept or wouldn’t. CIBC…gotta love em. Canada may have a stable banking system, but customer service oriented it is not.
Is it a chip and PIN debit card? Britain largely runs on chip and PIN debit cards these days and most shps and other businesses have the POS machines to handle them. I do most of my shopping and pay many of my bills with my debit card. I rarely use cash and never use cheques. Mine is a Visa one however. I do not know how one from a Canadian bank that is not backed by Visa or Mastercard would go over. (Unlike my rarely used credit card, my debit card does not say Cirrus or Visa Plus on it, just Visa Debit and the name of my UK bank.)
Incidentally, what is the story on how your wife suddenly found herself in a foreign country without money or her credit card?
Yes, it is a chip and PIN debit card. My debit card does have the Plus symbol on it, so I imagine that hers’ will too. I have advised her to try to buy something with at a big place, like a Tesco and see what happens.
We were travelling together, however she is staying an extra week to do a placement at a Hospital, and I left on Sunday. Only then did we realize I had her CC in my wallet
Hmm, I could be mistaken but the cards have a Chip in them, and require a PIN, but bank cards have always required a PIN. Credit Cards are all PIN now as well
The problem I had in Europe when I used my debit card was that I had memorized my pin id as 4 letter word (and no not that one!); when I got there they had a different system than we used in states (imagine that) where the keyboard layout wasn’t based on the our old analog phone number dial pad where 1=ABC, 2=DEF and so on. Took me awhile to decode and recode my own PIN number. Other than that no problem other than larger than normal access charges and currency exchange rate fluctuations that didn’t get firmed up until I got home.
Mine works fine in USA ATM, I presume it would work the same in any other country with an ATM system that is compatible. Mine h s a chip, but my old one worked fine with a PIN.
Yes, the chip and pin should work in UK for Point of Sale.
Depending on what priveleges your banking package has, you may be charged for individual payments/withdrawals so she might be better off making a single ATM withdrawal for cash instead. If she isn’t comfortable carrying cash, then the fees may be worth it.
It will work fine as long as you notify the bank first that she plans to use the card in the UK. Otherwise they might put a hold on the card, suspecting that it’s being used fraudulently.
I guess that this is resolved now, but she should try buying something in a supermarket first. I think it likely that there will be no problem but if there is then she can just walk off.
If there is a problem then she should head for a bank. I bet if you look it up, your Canadian bank has an associate, or even a branch in London.
If it’s this system, I don’t think it’s going to work in the UK. Chip and pin/debit/credit card payments are nearly ubiquitous in the UK, but I not, as far as I know, to include Interac.
Mine called me while I was in London to confirm that I was actually out of country. So yes, if you do not have international dialing I would highly recommend that you inform your bank that you will be overseas.
Yes, Canada uses Chip and PIN. However, until very recently, no Canadian debit cards used Visa or Mastercard. All Canadian debit cards used a separate system called Interac. Interac is within Canada only. Interac debit cards can not be used at point of sale outside Canada*.
However, I had no problem using my Interac debit card at ATMs outside Canada to withdraw cash, even 13 years ago.
Recently, though, some Canadian banks have started issuing debit cards that are both Interac and Visa/Mastercard. They use Interac at point of sale within Canada and Visa/MC outside Canada.
My bank did not do this. Instead, I got an additional card with a Visa number that is tied to my chequing account. It’s not a “complete” Visa card, however; it’s just a plastic card with the number printed on it. There is no chip or stripe. I can use it online, even within Canada, but not at places that require the physical card. They call it a “virtual” Visa card.
[sub]*With one exveption. I believe that Interac cards can be used at US merchants on the Nyce system. I have never done this.[/sub]
Things are resolved. She ended up just pulling money out because the fees charged for overseas debit amounts would have added up to the same as pulling out cash. Thanks for the help!