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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!whuxl!wjm
From: wjm@whuxl.UUCP (MITCHELL)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Credit Cards in Europe
Message-ID: <303@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Oct-84 12:59:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxl.303
Posted: Fri Oct 26 12:59:58 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Oct-84 04:22:38 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
Lines: 18


Having just returned from 3 weeks in France, Italy, W. Germany, Austria,
and Switzerland, hence my absence from the USENET, here are my observations
about credit cards in Europe.
Amex is widely accepted both by hotels and restaurants and by shops in all the
cities I visited.  Diners Club is also accepted by  many hotels and restaurants.
Visa and MC are also accepted fairly widely - Visa more so in France, MC (or
Eurocard as its called there) more so in Germany and slightly more so in Italy.
Forget any other credit cards, although I suspect that oil company outlets (e.g.
Shell and Exxon affiliates) may accept their US credit cards.
BTW Amex has cards whose "home currency" is not US dollars - the 3rd & 4th
digits of an Amex acct # (after the '37' which tell that this is an Amex
card) tell 1) the home currency of the card holder, 2) whether it is  a personal
or corporate account, and 3) whether it is a Green Card or a Gold Card
They may also tell other things that I don't know about.
Regards,
Bill Mitchell (whuxl!wjm)