[lca2018-chat] Just a couple of weeks to go!

[Andrew Donnellan]

On 10 January 2018 at 08:02, Brian May <brian at linuxpenguins.xyz> wrote:

> Andrew Donnellan <andrew at donnellan.id.au> writes:
>
> > I agree with Ewen that you absolutely can get away without much cash at
> all
> > - you might want some for smaller food outlets that prefer cash to card,
> > and for splitting bills at restaurants that don't like to split for you,
> > but otherwise if you're happy to cop the foreign transaction fee on your
> > card you'll be able to use at least Visa/Mastercard in most places.
>
> Be careful though.
>
> I once got stuck after making a purchase in NZ at a kiosk without
> cash. We told them beforehand that we didn't have NZD cash, and were
> unsure of our ability to pay, and they said they don't take credit card,
> only EFTPOS, and it would be fine. They proceeded to make the order
> (icecreams) and we found we couldn't pay - our cards did not work.  I
> would have preferred they get our payment first before making the order,
> but they didn't - maybe we should have demanded this. Or maybe we should
> have ordered something small and returnable first. Eventually we were
> able to pay in AUD cash (the sales assistant had said no to AUD but the
> manager fortunately noticed we had AUD and said it was fine).
>
> Turns out (according to rumour) the EFTPOS network in NZ (as opposed
> credit card transactions) is completely different and seperate from the
> EFTPOS network in AU. There is no interaction between the two. Where as
> my earlier research seemed to imply that they are the one an same. Would
> be really good if this sort of information on how these networks work
> (e.g. which network a transaction uses and what area it covers) was
> published on the Internet somewhere...
>

That is correct, and something that I too have discovered the hard way in
my travels to NZ.

In Australia, if you see a card reader, that will basically 100% take both
Australian EFTPOS cards and any Australian or international Visa +
MasterCard (Amex/Diners/other international credit card/charge card
networks can be patchy but still quite common).


-- 
Andrew Donnellan
http://andrew.donnellan.id.au         andrew at donnellan.id.au
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