Has anyone been to Spain? Amex gift card question

[luvwinnie]

I'm assuming MOST places in Spain would accept an Amex gift card...do you think I'm right? My niece is going there to study for 6 weeks.

 

[carolfoy]

certainly the bigger stores would, she may get a problem in small shops and restaurants and there may be a higher fee to pay to get hard cash off the card.

 

[luvwinnie]

Thanks. After doing some research it seems the Amex TRAVELer's card would be better.

 

[SandraVB79]

Quite frankly, I wouldn't count on it. Sorry. Spain is still... not up to this-day-level-of-technology.

ETA: I wouldn't even count too much on them accepting a REGULAR Amex card, except for the expensive stores/ restaurants/ hotels at Madrid and the like. But for the regular places we mortals (aka the-not-rich-and-famous) frequent, I would take the "normal" Visa, Mastercard or even just plain cash.

 

[luvwinnie]

Thanks. Thinking of giving her a VISA Traveler's card now.

 

[Chereya]

I would not purchase any pre-paid credit card type item for use overseas. If there is a problem and she needs to call customer service, it will be a bigger hassle than it already would be if she were here in the US.

One annoying thing that all prepaid gift card type credit cards share in common is that you have to know the exact balance on the card when you get down to the end of using it. You have to use the exact amount up. For instance, if your bill is $10 and your card only has $9.99 on it, it will decline. In order to use the card in this instance, you'd have to know before hand that it only has $9.99 left on it and tell the cashier that you want to pay $9.99 in credit, and 1 cent in cash. If the cashier can't, won't or doesn't understand that you want to use 2 separate methods of payment, you're stuck.

I can't say enough BAD things about the AMEX card in particular. My mother purchased 4 of these at a Rite-Aid store and for some reason, only 2 were activated at the register. The other 2 were dead. We had to call AMEX multiple times and they basically told us we were SOL. They basically accused us of sealing the cards and that's why they had no monetary value on them. After mutiple phone calls, various lies from AMEX (they tried to claim that the card wouldn't work because their computer system was down for a week), multiple trips back to the Rite-Aid where we bought them trying to get a refund or exchange the cards, multiple calls at Rite-Aid so that the Rite-Aid manager could talk to AMEX customer service, etc etc, I decided that I will never, ever under any circumstances utilize any American Express products again.

Chereya

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Well I've never been to Spain, but I kind of like the music...

 

[disneynutt1225]

Amex GIFT cards are NOT valid anywhere outside of the US. If you wanted to use an Amex TRAVELFUNDS card, that would be your best bet.

Since I've never been overseas, I don't really know what vendors prefer. I seem to recall Visa being a biggie, though.

 

[golfgal]

I have had all kinds of problems using Visa and Am Ex gift cards in the US, I would stick with travelers checks or give her cash that she can put in a debit account or a regular credit card. The gift cards are just too quirky.