ATM cash withdrawal in Africa
 

Hi Folks,
has anybody experience with cash withdrawal with VISA Card in Africa. According to Visa European customer service this should not be any problem. BUT: How does reality look like? I am at the point to decide if I will work with traveller checks or go to banks in the major capitals to get cash from my Visa account. From my research the 3% comission on Visa is still lower compared to traveller checks and easier to handle. Any hints from practical experiance welcome !!
Wolfgang

East coast of Africa has a good international ATM network and you can obtain cash in all the major cities. Only problems on the east coast are Sudan, where it is virtually impossible to use Visa, and Ethiopia where cash advances will only be obtainable at the international hotels in Addis Ababa. Don't know about the situation on the west coast.

A good idea is to also carry some US$ cash, just in case the ATM network is down, and to tide you over in the rural areas.

Forget travellers cheques - they are a waste of time and will cause you no end of hassle trying to get them changed.

Thank you Matt, good to have feedback from pracktical experience. My info was just theoretical and you confirm my plan to skip traveller checks.
Wolfgang

try and get a mastercard as well. Travelling down the Atlantic route (albeit 2 yrs ago) only one or the other was available in various zones, not both. You wouldn't want to get caught with the wrong card! otherwise no problems getting money out, we did it this way.

andy
landy 101 ambie
TLC H60
morris minor traveller!

www.plymouth-dakar.com

hello,

yes, take the visa card and maybe a visa debit card (cirrus). forget about mastercard, if you travel west africa. no travellers checks. euros in west africa, dollars only for ghana and nigeria (the rate is slightly better than the euro rate)

be careful in some places, eg. Togo, it can happen that the atm does not give you money but the bank takes it from your card.

euros are best in west africa. east africa you can manage with both mastercard and visa easy, but better to have debit cards.

enjoy

mika

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