When travelling overseas, beware that most countries require a pin on credit card purchases – so you do not have the option to sign for payment. On a recent trip to New Zealand we found 95% of places would not accept a signature on a credit card payment and luckily we had a backup and could get money out with our eftpos card.
Note however in New Zealand you cannot use your Australia eftpos card in a shop, you can only use it to withdraw at an ATM as long as you have Cirrus or Maestro on the back of your card.
The UK and nearly all of Europe also require a pin on credit card purchases so make sure you have one (if you do not already) when travelling overseas.
We feel it is a good thing they are enforcing this as it obviously makes everything a lot more secure, but as we were not organised and did not check this before leaving we found it a major inconvenience. In some cases we were lucky we had cash, especially after filling up the car, otherwise we would have had a major problem trying to leave the petrol station!
In the United States, we have also heard that if a transaction is under around $50, your credit card only needs to be swiped and no signature or pin is required. The key issue with this is you need to ensure your credit card is stored very securely as, if it’s stolen, a lot of small transactions can be made which can add up to a lot in a short amount of time.
Let us know whether signature is accepted in other parts of the world.
Please visit the Haggus and Stookles E-Store. A gorgeous kids backpack there. Visit now and feel free to browse our high quality products which you may find useful when travelling with kids.
Other posts you might enjoy reading:
Family Accommodation – Finding baby and child friendly accommodation in Europe
A few travel tips from our family trip to the USA
How to Avoid Lost Luggage..and be prepared in case it happens to you.
My experience is you should have 2 Credit Cards. I use Visa.