March 10, 2006
MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Diners Club
Where the USD is concerned, if MasterCard is accepted at an establishment, Visa will be accepted as well. If your spending is confined to the US, one card is more than enough.
The same can’t be said for Europe. Some countries have a merged network for Visa and MasterCard with all merchants accepting both. France is prominent among these countries. But in the case of cash advance networks, they have not been merged. In countries like France almost any bank allows cash advance for Visa but only a few banks allow it for MasterCard. Italy and other countries however, the networks have not been merged making it necessary to have both cards.
American Express, Diners Club, etc are accepted in less places compared to MasterCard and Visa but there are places which accept American Express and Diners Club but not MasterCard or Visa. Europe has fewer places accepting Diners Club alone or American Express alone.
European countries vary in acceptance of credit cards. France has more places than even the US accepting them. Italy, England, Germany and Greece have fewer places except for tourist-oriented shops. Credit card info.com reports:
In the U.S., almost any establishment that takes MasterCard takes Visa, and vice versa. If you're going to be doing all your spending in the U.S., you may not want (or need) both cards.
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