11499 Euro credit card

Can anyone advise please? We have been trying to get a Euro credit card with reasonable charges (ie no fees if the monthly amount is paid off before the due date) to use on journeys to and from Italy (hotels and petrol etc) and possibly in Italy, but have not had much success. We do have a Bancomat card with Banco di Brescia but it does not work outside Italy. We have tried it in various countries - though our local branch in Italy says it should work, it doesn't. We could get a credit card from Banco di Brescia but the local branch were trying to put us off and said the charges per transcaction were high and it was not worth getting one - odd as we have always been well in credit. Has anyone else been more fortunate? We could still use the UK credit cards but were looking for an alternative.
Thanks.

Category
Cost of living - Utility Services

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:16

Why not just open an account with Nationwide in the UK, no charges for use abroad, daily exchange rate as per currency sites eg XE.com. Ok it may be a day or 2 later it is converted, but you will find it the best deal against all the other card providers.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:30

Credit Cards with Italian banks are all paid off at the end of the month. Mine costs me £15 a year and is a visa. I don't have any problems with it. There are no other fees.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:55

Penny then it must be like a Debit card if it has to be paid in full at the end of the month. Otherwise if you want to spread your purchase costs over a couple of months for example, you have no chance.
Nationwide is a Visa card as well, but still a Debit card.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 12:03

Hi Geotherm,

no. It is a credit card issued by BCC Picena in Comunanza. They just work differently here. When I use it, I have the option of paying "carta" (credit card) or "bancomat" (debit card). Bancomat comes out of my account immediately just like a debit card and carta comes out at the end of the month like a credit card but must be paid in full each month.

BTW thanks for the tip of putting your PIN in three times at BNL in Amandola as I can now finally use my Lloyds TSB card in one machine finally!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 12:15

Must admit, got fed up with the 3 entries each time. Now use the post office bancomat which has always worked first time!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 17:56

Gedsett - if you just want a card to use for payments rather than carrying cash, and if you don't need the credit facility of a credit card, a simple solution is to buy a Postepay card over the counter at the post office. The card costs €5 and you can put up to €3000 of credit on the card. It worked perfectly for me in Australia and New Zealand for purchases and for withdrawals from cash machines, for purchases here in Italy, and for online shopping. It is a Visa Electron card. If you also have a post office bank account, you can put more credit on the card online and view the transactions. But if not, you can do the same over the counter or at a postamat machine.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 20:46

Stella's suggestion of the Postepay card is very valid. It is a spectacularly up to date sort of card (correlates with Paypal and all the rest, so you can top it up from any sterling/dollar/magari yen/ even Amex card) but you have to 'acquire' the Postepay card in Italy, in person, at any post office, previously having furnished yourself with a codice fiscale. I dunno how these Postepay cards work in Europe ex Italy - but they are on the Visa Electron circuit. I posted some links earlier - search on Postepay.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 12:24

They're certainly great for RyanAir tickets. It's paid for itself 10 times over already ;)