During our trip to Paris and Luxembourg back in May, we ran into a small issue midway through the trip: every card I had with no foreign transaction fees was being declined. This was odd, as we had been traveling for a few days, and I hadn’t had any issues. I hadn’t notified any of the banks regarding our travel plans, a bad habit I’ve gotten into. But they haven’t helped my laziness, as nothing has ever been declined. Until this instance.
Why don’t any of my cards work?!
During our third day in Paris, I found that none of my credit cards would work. When purchasing some items from a local market, I first tried my Chase Sapphire Reserve, which was the primary card I’d been using during our trip. Declined. Guess I gotta VoIP call Chase over the fairly poor WiFi at our hotel (SEE: Crowne Plaza Paris Republique Review). Then I handed over my Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Visa issued by Synchrony Bank, as it earns 1.5x Asia Miles on overseas purchases. Also declined. I’d previously only used this card for one transaction in Paris, and it had gone through just fine.
This was perplexing. I had to reach back into my wallet and pay with my dwindling cash supply. I had a couple other cards, but none of them waived foreign transaction fees aside from my Platinum Delta American Express. But I hadn’t found a merchant who accepted it yet.
Future purchases were also declined on both cards. I figured I’d just have to call both banks later. I ended up shelling out over €30 cash that afternoon, which was unfortunate, as I was *really* trying to avoid a second run to an ATM.
At least it was only temporary
That evening we headed back to the same market to pick up a few more things. I figured I’d have to pay in cash yet again. But I wanted to give the card another try.
As soon as I pulled it out of my wallet the cashier asked me something. My French is thus far hopeless, and all I caught was “Visa.” I showed it to her, as it was indeed a Visa. She made a motion to me not to use it. Okay, then. Gotta dip into my dwindling cash yet again.
Due to the crappy internet at the Crowne Plaza, I gave up trying to call Chase that evening. But the next day revealed the root of the problem.
Carry more than one card type with waived foreign transaction fees
When we arrived at our first stop of the day, I tried my Chase Sapphire Reserve card again, expecting it to be declined just like the previous day. To my surprise, the transaction processed normally. I must have looked surprised as well, as the English-speaking cashier at the shop in the Gare du Nord asked me if something was wrong. I explained the situation from the previous day, where my cards were declined everywhere we went.
She had the answer: the Visa network had been down the whole day throughout much of Europe. As they are the largest card issuer, I’m sure the majority of people were affected. This outage was due to a hardware failure and was limited to just Visa. Had I added a fee-free Mastercard to my wallet, I would have had no issues.
Conclusion
So that was the lesson: carry more than one card type. I typically only carry two cards without foreign transaction fees, and both are typically Visas. I’ve been careful to make sure I have one with more than one issuer, in case one gets declined, but I’d never thought to carry more than one card type.
This was a fluke more than anything, as I’ve never heard of the Visa network going down. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
How did Chip and Sig work in France? France has been real Chip and PIN since the 90’s.
Worked fine, although I didn’t try to use any automated kiosks except for at the train station, if I recall correctly. Didn’t run into any issues, although I hear you can. I used to have an Arrival+ for chip + pin capability, but it got downgraded about 18 months back.
Kind of a no brainer. I always travel,with Visa, MC and Amex 0% forex cards. Why wouldn’t you?
Also keep a few $100 bills – easy to convert if nothing else works. And 2 ATM fee free cards.
I typically head out with some cash and draw out more from an ATM. It’s just not my preferred method for purchases. Had never thought about making sure I had specific different card types, although I do typically travel with 3-4 credit cards internationally.
Several years ago a colleague of mine was on a business trip to Germany, where he went frequently. His company credit card was Visa. While he was enroute to Germany, the German government got into some kind of a snit fit with Visa and shut down the Visa network throughout Germany for about a week. He didn’t this had happened until his card got rejected at his hotel. He had to come up with cash out of his own account to cover things until Visa was once again accepted. I always travel with both Visa and Mastercard after hearing about that experience.
Ouch. That would be super frustrating. Hopefully the company reimbursed him for any extra ATM fees and such.
My strategy worldwide (even at home): AmEx Platinum for every day purchases; AmEx Hilton Ascend for gas stations and other potentially sketchy places; Sapphire Reserve Visa; AAdvantage Executive MasterCard. I also carry a separate ATM/Debit-only card with about $100 available cash in that account in the event I am faced with ‘debit only’ situations. I move cash into that account on the fly through my phone if need be.
Sounds like you have it down!