Our two main credit cards for travel abroad have no foreign exchange fees - the typical 3% "exchange fee" added on, while not a deal-breaker, is annoying.
They also allow us to sign up for instant e-mail alerts whenever a transaction goes through. Today's was timely.
An e-mail received this morning indicated we had paid USD $5.98 this morning to STER-KINEFOR, a South African movie chain.
We called our Visa credit card company in the U.S. to learn that they had previously declined a USD $.49 charge early this morning at McDonald's (lovely how South Africans include that apostrophe, unlike home).
We've used our credit card in only four places since arriving in Cape Town, and it could be any of them.
Fortunately, we have another no-fee card on hand and a couple of others should the necessity arise.
In the meantime, we withdrew cash to pay our Westin hotel bill this afternoon.
While this can happen anywhere, it's sad that it's not uncommon in South Africa.
They also allow us to sign up for instant e-mail alerts whenever a transaction goes through. Today's was timely.
An e-mail received this morning indicated we had paid USD $5.98 this morning to STER-KINEFOR, a South African movie chain.
We called our Visa credit card company in the U.S. to learn that they had previously declined a USD $.49 charge early this morning at McDonald's (lovely how South Africans include that apostrophe, unlike home).
We've used our credit card in only four places since arriving in Cape Town, and it could be any of them.
Fortunately, we have another no-fee card on hand and a couple of others should the necessity arise.
In the meantime, we withdrew cash to pay our Westin hotel bill this afternoon.
While this can happen anywhere, it's sad that it's not uncommon in South Africa.
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