This traveler's costly night in Amsterdam is a good reminder to book with right card

[MULTIZ321]

This traveler's costly night in Amsterdam is a good reminder to book with right card

Traveler's experience is reminder to book trip with right credit card - The Points Guy

A TPG reader booked a leg of his summer 2022 trip to Europe over PayPal instead of with one of his travel credit cards. Here's the lesson he learned from not using his credit card.

thepointsguy.com

Richard

 

[Carolinian]

This traveler's costly night in Amsterdam is a good reminder to book with right card

Traveler's experience is reminder to book trip with right credit card - The Points Guy

A TPG reader booked a leg of his summer 2022 trip to Europe over PayPal instead of with one of his travel credit cards. Here's the lesson he learned from not using his credit card.

thepointsguy.com

Richard

Well, the big takeaway, is NOT book with PayPal, which is not your pal because using that route takes away the benefits you have by using the card directly. In this case, either of his two cards, used directly instead of through PayPal would have provided relief in his situation.

I had a bad experience with one of PayPal's quirks when I was working in eastern Europe, cancelled PayPal thereafter and have never wanted to go back. There used to be a site with some PayPal alternatives at paypalsucks.com but I think that site is down now.

Another thing to think about is looking at card benefits on rental car insurance. Visa, Mastercard, and AmEx all have some, and usually in the states your own personal car insurance will cover you, but not abroad. I dropped my AmEx because nobody took it in the country I was working in so it was useless, but prior to that I always used AmEx to rent cars because its overseas rental coverage beat the other two cards. I had someone break out a rear window in a rental car in France to steal an item I left in the back seat, and that was totally covered by AmEx. Then in Greece, I got rearended with major damage to the car. It was a breeze with the car rental company due to using AmEx.

 

[Talent312]

PayPal has some usefulness for travel, such as paying for foreign services.

We and 2 other couples used PP to arrange a private tour in Cannes, France.
The guide wasn't set up to take CC payments. He did, however, accept PP.
Of course, we vetted him beforehand.

More recently, I used PayPal to buy a train ticket from Innsbruck to Vienna.
For some reason, Austrian rail online didn't accept my CC, but did accept PP.

I'm just sayin', sure, use a CC when you can, but if you can't, PP can be useful.
.