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As said in the question, is it safe to only have a prepaid Mastercard as a mean of financing my travel? The amount on the card is not a problem since it is linked to my bank account and can be recharged easily through the banking app.

I don't have a credit card, only this and a debit card (Mastercard too) that I use daily and I would like to avoid bringing with me.

I will also bring some cash and most of the expenses are already covered. Any advice in general?

For the record, I'm Italian and I'm traveling to India.

smci
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bracco23
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    Prepaid cards often don't work outside of the country they were issued in. – Doc Jan 30 '20 at 15:30
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    @Doc Really? never heard such a thing. That's for sure something I can verify with my bank I guess. – bracco23 Jan 30 '20 at 15:37
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    This is a comment for several of the answers. Before you leave on your trip, call the number on the back of the card and let the card issuer know you are leaving the country. Tell them dates and destinations. Then, when you start using the card in the foreign countries they shouldn't suspect fraud. Also note that the US does not use a Chip and pin system, they use Chip and sign. I've had non-US POS systems (point of sale) not work with my US card. I suspect that some US POS systems may have issues with non-US cards – Flydog57 Jan 30 '20 at 22:42
  • How quickly could you get, say, 10K Euros onto the card in the case of an emergency? – Spehro Pefhany Jan 31 '20 at 02:38
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    @SpehroPefhany 10k is a pretty big sum and I guess it would go above some limits, but if we say something more reasonable, like 1k, probably a couple of minutes is all it takes. And an internet connection, of course. – bracco23 Jan 31 '20 at 06:33
  • I have a European credit card. In India, Hotels and other merchandise terminals often refuses that credit card with error message "International cards not accepted". Although, big hotels and supermarket chains did accept my card. – Knu8 Jan 31 '20 at 10:50
  • @Rg7xgW6acQ3g true, there is safeness and safeness. I want to bring only one to reduce the risk of losing the ones I'm not using, prepaid so that I can block that with little to no problem if it gets stolen or such. The "safeness" of the question, which have correctly been addressed in several answers, is how much I risk this decision to backfire and leave me without money. – bracco23 Jan 31 '20 at 13:08
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    @bracco23 what risk are you talking about? If a credit card is stolen you are not responsible for the fraudulent transactions. Prepaid cards are far more risky, your concerns are backwards. – eps Jan 31 '20 at 18:01
  • When I traveled from Germany to the USA, I had an extreme deal of difficulty renting a car with only a debit card, no credit card. Regardless of the amount of money on the card, having a credit card kind of certifies you as credit worthy; so if you total the car, they have some hope of you paying them back. I finally was able to rent a car, but it was a torturous process. – Jennifer Jan 31 '20 at 20:06
  • I got to eat a free lunch on a plane a few months ago because my prepaid card didn't work on board the plane :) – Count Iblis Jan 31 '20 at 20:51
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    @eps while I tend to agree in this regard, I'm still lacking a credit card (and will continue to do so, I'm not fond of them), so they are not an option. – bracco23 Jan 31 '20 at 21:03
  • @bracco23: "And an internet connection, of course." There's the rub. – Nate Eldredge Feb 01 '20 at 20:13
  • I haven't been to India for ten years. When I went it was with a group of people, I had plenty of rupees, and carried two different bank cards (debit and credit) as backup. I ensured that I had multiply redundant plans for most eventualities (losing cash, or cards, or the group I was with). What's your backup plan for the worst-case situation that your one and only credit card gets lost/stolen while you're in a different continent? – Aaron F Feb 02 '20 at 20:36
  • This is a very bad idea. I did this in Japan, and i spent more than a day until i found out that all except the ATMs in 7-11 supermarkets would reject my Credit Card. Even post offices would not accept it on the counter or ATMs they had inside. Card and ATMs all had the "MasterCard" logo on them, but that does not always mean they will pay out money. – iHaveacomputer Feb 02 '20 at 21:25
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    You can have problems even inside europe. Once, a friend of mine, who lived in the netherlands at that time, came to germany for a visit. He wanted to buy a train ticket back, but the Deutsche Bahn did not accept his bank card from the netherlands (even if it is in the same system), they did even not accept his credit card (foreign!!) - in the end, I had to pay with my german bank card. It was so weird, because all those systems are supposed to work at least everywhere in the EU, and it was the biggest travel company of the country. – Julian Egner Feb 02 '20 at 21:57
  • @bracco23 You should really learn how credit cards work. There's no good reason not to use them, unless you're very bad with money. –  Mar 11 '20 at 15:24
  • What does the question mean? "Is it safe...?" as in, will people manage to steal/skim/duplicate the card? Or is it safe for you to rely on it as main method of payment, in India (as in, what happens wherever it's not accepted/fraud-blocked)? Those are two different questions. – smci Jan 29 '21 at 00:07

5 Answers5

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It's always a good idea to have at least two completely different and separate cards if you are travelling far from home:

  • Some issuers will overzealously block your card "for security reasons" as soon as you hit a foreign country, and it may take a little while to get them to unblock it (just due to matters of timezone differences and limited customer service opening times).

  • In some cases, it might be more subtle, and they may block certain merchants but not others, and so on. Always good to have another option.

  • There used to be rare cases where you could find merchants or ATMs that would only accept Visa or Mastercard, but not both. It's not happened to me in a long time, but there may still be such instances.

  • You could lose your card or get it stolen. Of course, having a second card only really helps if you keep them separate in this case. But not all cards are equal in terms of time to get them replaced (especially abroad) and/or providing emergency cash in such situations. Credit cards are usually better of this than debit cards, but the line is not necessarily very clear.

  • In some places, there's a risk you could have your card "skimmed", which would then force you to ask for the card to be blocked. Always good to have a spare.

  • Don't forget that many issuers have daily and/or weekly and/or monthly spend limits. You could have all the cash you want on your account, they won't let you spend more than those limits. The limits are often different for purchases and withdrawals, and for foreign v. domestic transactions.

Of course, if you're in a situation where most of your costs have been prepaid before leaving, you only need a card for day-to-day expenses, and someone can send you cash in an emergency, then it may all be unnecessary. But if you plan to have significant amounts (hotels, restaurants) to pay, better safe than sorry.

jcaron
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    This is excellent advice. Another possibility is an ATM not returning a card to the user. Happened to me (for the first time) last week at an airport in Mexico. – DavidRecallsMonica Jan 30 '20 at 15:29
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    What's overzealous about flagging a card when unusual activity occurs? Also can't you avoid this simply by letting your card issuer know about your travel plans? – Nacht Jan 30 '20 at 22:41
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    @Nacht-ReinstateMonica Some card issuers have very easy and practical procedures to let them know you're travelling. For others, you can try to call them, but it often won't even work until the card is blocked in the first place. Also, blocking risky transactions (online for instance) is once thing. Blocking a card-present transaction where the PIN was actually used is probably stupid. – jcaron Jan 30 '20 at 22:46
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    @Nacht-ReinstateMonica I have given banks my whereabouts on a weekly basis plus itineraries plus permanent notes on my cards and still had them flagged. Even things like app store transactions in the wrong regions can set off their monitoring. If you travel for long enough it will probably happen, then you will wish you had a backup card. –  Jan 31 '20 at 04:19
  • Excellent answer. For the same reason I'd really advise (1) pre-paying the housing and return trip upfront (from home) to avoid hitting the spending cap once abroad and "guarantee" a roof and safe return, and (2) keeping a healthy amount of cash with you, split between people in the group and luggage, just in case of emergency. – Matthieu M. Jan 31 '20 at 09:13
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    "Some issuers will overzealously block your card "for security reasons" as soon as you hit a foreign country" Having had that happen once, I make sure to call them in advance and let them know that I will be in country X between dates Y & Z. No guarantee, but it helps, I think. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Jan 31 '20 at 11:21
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    "There used to be rare cases where you could find merchants or ATMs that would only accept Visa or Mastercard, but not both." - Costco still does that. You can't pay by Mastercard at Costco. – user2357112 Jan 31 '20 at 20:51
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    @Nacht-ReinstateMonica I will back up jgn. My daughter spent a semester in Spain and another in England, my son spent a summer session in Spain and my wife and I spent time in France. On each trip, despite notifying the issuer (a major US issuer whose name starts with a C and ends in hase) in advance of the travel plans, we all had cards flagged on each of the trips. Only having multiple cards saved us while we got the initial issues sorted out. – FreeMan Jan 31 '20 at 21:00
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    Every single card I have these days, when i notify them "about travel" , they just say "oh we don't even have that any more, go ahead and travel". And the 17 yr old on the phone makes me feel as old as I am :) A lot of this advice is just, and that's life, out of date! (Happily!) – Fattie Jan 31 '20 at 23:58
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    @Fattie and then they block your card :-) – jcaron Feb 01 '20 at 00:12
  • Another issue I've encountered with prepaid cards (even the ones from smaller fintech banks), is that you sometimes cannot pay at automated petrol pumps, highway tolls, etc. with them. This is in france, not sure about other countries. – Jonas Czech Feb 01 '20 at 11:49
  • @FreeMan Hm. Is it possible this is an American bank problem? I have never had mine flagged (two different Australian banks). I'm sure I don't travel as much as other members of this site though. – Nacht Feb 02 '20 at 22:26
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    @Nacht-ReinstateMonica had french cards blocked (no way to notify them in advance), UK cards blocked (there was a way to do it though). Definitely not an American thing. But it's really random. The same French card I have used so many times was once blocked in HK while withdrawing from an ATM on arrival at the airport, even though it wasn't the many times before or the many times after, for instance. Bank security systems have heuristics that are sometimes difficult to figure. Also note that in some cases the card will be blocked, while in others, it's only for a specific merchant or use... – jcaron Feb 02 '20 at 23:28
  • I definitely got around the idea of bringing only one card, for sure will bring more. Accepted this because of the consensus but they all are great answers, thanks everyone! – bracco23 Feb 03 '20 at 09:14
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Always carry at least 2 cards, if not more!

I had my main card blocked many times while traveling. As @jcaron explained, it's common for card issuers to block your card as soon as you make a transaction in a new country. Then you need to get in touch with your bank to have it unblocked, which can be difficult if you're traveling to a country where you don't have data coverage and where public WiFi networks are rare.

A few month ago I even was in a situation were 2 of my cards were momentarily unavailable: the first one fell victim to skimming and the other one expired before I received the new card from my bank. Had I been abroad at the time, I could easily have had a third card blocked by an issuer. So if you can carry 3 or 4 cards, do it, that's not too many!

Since you're from Italy, you can get travel cards with no margin on exchange rates from N26 and bunq. You can also get cards that have a small margin on exchange rates from Revolut and TransferWise. All of these cards are free or cost only a small one-time fee, with no fees for inactivity, so they make good backup cards for your travels.

One of your cards should be a credit card

Your prepaid Mastercard should work for most transactions. I use my Revolut prepaid Visa all the time abroad.

However, some rental car companies and hotels only accept credit cards. Or accept debit cards and prepaid cards only in exchange for "debit card fees". I recommend you carry a credit card along with your prepaid card. I use bunq's Travel Card.

Ronan Boiteau
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    the "bunq" card looks like a good tip, Ronan. (Though, btw it's extremely unlikely he'll be renting a car, I'd guess.) – Fattie Jan 31 '20 at 13:19
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    There are many cases where Revolut does have some margin on exchange rates, e.g. on weekends or converting to/from THB. – Franck Dernoncourt Feb 01 '20 at 01:54
  • I disagree that one of cards must necessary be a credit card. For example, I have my Australian debit card and I use it like a debit card while in Australia, but once I get overseas, it starts to get treated as a credit in the sense that you select 'credit account' when withdrawing money from ATMs and it works totally fine for car rental and all other stuff even in US, where it feels like not having a credit card is a social faux pas. Basically just as long as your debit card belongs to one of the major international companies, such as Visa or MasterCard. – NotAName Feb 23 '20 at 00:04
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    @pavel My understanding (I'm from NZ, so same process for debit cards as you), is that some places, such as hotels, may put a large hold on your funds. With credit, that doesn't matter as long as you have enough credit limit. But with debit, that restricts your actual money from being spent. – Programmdude Mar 11 '20 at 06:53
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Deposits for hotel rooms and rental cars are much easier with a credit card, and some may not accept anything else than a credit card. Check before you go. https://travel-dealz.eu/blog/book-hotel-without-credit-card/

Prepaid usually won't work offline. It have happened to me twice in two-three years that the merchant's terminal didn't have any contact with the outside. At both times prepaid cards weren't accepted but credit cards were accepted. Cash is of course accepted on most destinations in this case but not all.

Anders
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5

In answer to your actual specific question,

  1. I am not from Italy but

  2. I have frequently travelled to India from Europe, both short and long trips

  3. I have never used, or taken, a credit card to India. Only debit cards.

Some thoughts,

  • It's incredibly unlikely you'll be renting a car there.

  • India is super-high-tech and mobile-oriented, so I've never had any problem using any sort of card at even smaller merchants. If you're coming from backwards Europe, or more-backwards USA, it's like stepping in to the future in terms of mobile use, connectivity etc. Think Indian programmers etc etc.

  • You'll surely want some cash, and the best/only way to get that is very easily at the ATMs which are everywhere.

  • For uber/similar (everyone uses those constantly), as I say I have only ever used/had debit cards.

  • At more "Western" hotels, no issue. If you stay in a more "local" hotel (where local businesspeople stay) it's possible they simply only take cash, but, if they do take cards there is no difference between debit/credit. (I've never encountered one that only takes cash, not cards.)

Some folks have pointed out that, with cards, one sometimes gets that annoyance where the company will security ping you. Unfortunately, that is true anyway if you have 1, 10, 1000 cards on you - it's just one of the nuisances of life. (If you have more cards it's almost just more annoying.) I don't see it as anything to get worked up about; there's no solution to it. It sometimes happens, annoyingly, in your own country.

Tip: if arriving in Mumbai, do not take an uber from the airport. (It's perfectly ok to take an uber/whatever to the airport, but do not take one from the airport.) Just get some local paper currency from the many ATMs on arrival, and, walk downstairs and take a totally normal yellow taxi to town. You pay (cash) at a little desk and they put you in a yellow cab (the cost is a pittance). Otherwise, use ubers/whatever freely. Or indeed, just hail a cab on the street anytime, paying the small fares with cash.

caveat India is obviously enormous, and there is nobody existing who is familiar with all cities, or even regions, of India. I know zero about many whole "universes" of India. (Maybe question should be more region specific, IDK?)

Our Lady Lakshmi will bring you a prosperous trip!

enter image description here

(among other things she is the patron of the welfare & education of girls; so those who follow Lakshmi you may donate, say, books to a girl's school to honor Lakshmi. subsequently whenever I flew to India I'd donate 50 or 100 bucks to say a girl's orphanage. (easy to do online!) this has made me huge piles of money in Indian business, so, it works for me - thanks only to Lakshmi. Good luck!)

Fattie
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  • Thanks for the suggestions, really useful to get a more tailored answer. I am sure going to bring a good amount of cash, not sure how much yet. Luckily, transportation and hotels are already part of the organization so I don't have to worry about that. – bracco23 Jan 31 '20 at 13:06
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    the good news is you need very little cash since everything is cheap! I have never even bothered trying to calculate "is the rate better at home or at an ATM there" ... I simply get, say, 10,000 rupees from an ATM when I get off the flight (like, 100 euros worth). bonn viaggio! – Fattie Jan 31 '20 at 13:09
  • btw as an Italian you will LOVE the food - go simple, just enjoy the bread, etc. great – Fattie Jan 31 '20 at 13:22
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    “India is super-high-tech and mobile-oriented, so I've never had any problem using any sort of card at even smaller merchants.” — this varies MASSIVELY depending on where you are and what kinds of places you’re spending money at. I’ve mostly only spent time in Bangalore, but even there (a big, highly-developed city) plenty of smaller more traditional shops/restaurants were cash-only, while lots more took cash and mobile payments but not cards. – PLL Jan 31 '20 at 23:03
  • @PLL - perhaps that's true; notice my last paragraph. Then again, the US (say) varies wildly between Salt Lake and rural Arkansas. Just TBC, my assumption for the OP is the cost of street food, etc, is so low you'd surely just use some cash rupees in such situations. – Fattie Jan 31 '20 at 23:56
  • On a side note, Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and Saraswati is the goddess of education / music / art. In India, the common perception is that they are never together in any place! – nightgaunt Feb 01 '20 at 03:20
  • Something must have changed drammatically, because it was purely cash only the last time I was in India. From accomodation and transpoftation in Ladakh to rikshas in Delhi. – Vladimir F Героям слава Feb 02 '20 at 09:17
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As other answers have pointed out, a second means of payment is necessary since some places only accept one of the major cards and not the other.

If you're using pre-paid cards it's not difficult to purchase a popular competitor's card too, only inconvenient to tie up the funds, but being caught without money is worse.

Also noted in some answers is the you might get an occasional call asking if it's you using the card, or you'll want to have a means to load more money or report a stolen card; and that's where an additional payment method becomes available.

  • Contactless Payment

    Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, or any bank mobile application that supports contactless) for making secure payments.

    You'll want to bring a phone, and much like your cards be certain not to lose it. Turn on and setup NFC payment using your phone. You can tap with your phone much the same as with a card, and the fingerprint scanner makes it fairly secure.

    • Apple Pay - Not available in India

    • Google Pay and Samsung Pay work in India
      On phones dfferent credit, debit and loyalty cards can be loaded into the app, and selected by swiping between them on-screen. Then you tap your phone, if the payment is over the limit you need to enter a PIN too.

By bringing a phone and setting up payments before you go (and contacting your payment sources) you'll have a backup source of funds and means to conduct your finances when you travel. Be aware that you might want to rent / purchase a second phone for travel as your phone's private contents may be subject to search by Customs.

Rob
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