[haeikou]

So I'm European and everything, and not so much used to credit cards everywhere ... but is it really so hard to pay cash for a day?

[pavel_lishin]

Not really, but you have to estimate how much cash you'll need. You also run the risk of that cash being stolen.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

And there's also the convenience thing of not having to withdraw in advance

[kaybe]

It won't go bad after this day.. (but theft is a valid point)

[archangel_one]

If you don't live in the UK, having a fistful of sterling when you get home is not really the ideal situation. It's not far from it going bad, in a sense.

[kaybe]

Ah, yes, if you go home the next day.. good point.

[jarek]

For values of "going bad" approaching "losing 2-4% of its value." The horror.

[archangel_one]

Well yes, but you have to go to a bank and exchange it, and they do their best to charge more - the last time I asked about selling €50, the bank wanted a $5 fee...

Anyway, it seems reasonable to me that people might want to avoid that when they have a perfectly good Mastercard which has always worked in the past.

[pavel_lishin]

So what's the percentage where it's acceptable to be truly annoyed at Visa?

[jarek]

13.7%.

I was responding to the "going bad" claim.

[bzbarsky]

It really depends on the currency. The odds of Euros, say, going "bad" on a scale of months to years are fairly nonzero. Similar for currencies with high inflation rates.

[kaybe]

You're not supposed to hang on to it for years. Surely you have to pay for transportation to the airport at least?

[bzbarsky]

That depends. The last international flight I took, I walked to the airport in the origination country. ;)

[kaybe]

Where was that? Here you're lucky if the airport is closer than 50km.

[jlgreco]

When you don't have cash on your person? Yes, it is.