Using Multibanco cards "abroad"

[jimmyp]

Hi All

Sorry if this is a stupid question but are you able to use multibanco cards in other countries (Italy/switzerland) and if so is there a cash handling fee for doing so?

Cheers

J

[roy4eyes]

Yes. No. Used them in France, Spain ,Germany, Morocco. You may get a poor exchange rate in U.K.or other non-Euro countries as you would in reverse.

[jimmyp]

Thanks Roy

Live in UK so wanted a euro account to take money in and out to avoid the currency charges.

Cheers

J

[laserblazer]

My Portuguese Barclays card works in the UK but I've never tried taking money out. Maybe you need a prepaid euro debit card? That's what we used before we had a Portuguese account.

[jimmyp]

Thanks Laser

Will look into that as well!

J

[joeysoap]

assuming the portuguese cards work like the cards issued by irish banks. no charge in any eurozone country, but there is a charge in the uk. if you make a withdrawal in uk you are charged conversion rate + whatever mark up the bank have + you have to be careful which atm you use, if you choose an atm not belonging to an associate bank you may also be charged for using that particular atm. otherwise you can use ANY atm in ANY eurozone country with no charge.

[biffa]

Are you sure MultiBanco cards work abroad? Portuguese Visa debit/credit may but MB's?

[laserblazer]

Are you sure MultiBanco cards work abroad? Portuguese Visa debit/credit may but MB's?

YOu could be right, mine's a Visa debit.

[Polli62]

My millennium multibanco visa debit card wouldn't work in the UK. They have now changed us over to Maestro multibanco debit card, but not checked if it can be used in other EU countries. Does anyone know.?

[biffa]

You can't even use MB cards to make purchases online. I have to say even my BANIF VISA debit card is very iffy when tried outside Portugal!

[jimmyp]

Thanks for all the advice - have decided to go down the route of getting a prepaid euro debit card from UK just to be safe!!

Still cant wait to get out to CVO in August and use my MB card though!!

[joeysoap]

You can't even use MB cards to make purchases online. I have to say even my BANIF VISA debit card is very iffy when tried outside Portugal!

agree. I tried to use my barclays electron mb card to purchase tickets with easyjet but no joy, so had to revert to the debit card (still less costly than a credit card)