Iceland on Thursday

[wtown16]

We leave for Iceland on Thursday.  For anyone that has been…what was your preferred method of paying?  I know credit cards are the main form of payment, but we have a foreign transaction fee on our card.  I wish I had gotten another card earlier!  Did you exchange money, pay with credit, or pay with debit? So excited for our trip!

Thanks!

[sunshinedaydreams]

I think we split between cash and CC, but had no FT fees or ATM fees with our bank, so that helped us out a bit. I'd agree with PP, though, if you have ATM fees, using the CC with FT fees probably about evens out.

We got cash in the airport b/c we thought we might have issues paying for tours and things with CC, but on both of our tours the guides had portable CC machines with them and we were able to use our cards on the spot there, too.

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2013 19:44:07 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Also, if you end up with the equivalent of $20 in local currency at the end of your trip, you're stuck with it because you can't really change it for anything worthwhile - it costs you too much.

We were there over Labor Day.  We had read ahead of time that Iceland is a REALLY credit card accepting country, and it is true that pretty much everywhere takes credit cards, but we ended up using more cash than we planned because we got attitude at a bakery for trying to use a credit card (the morning we arrived -- we hadn't found an ATM yet).

One brilliant thing we discovered... If you go to the Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport on your last day, you can pay using both cash and a credit card.  So we gave them all of our leftover cash, and then paid for the rest on the card, and they were really nice about it (it was their suggestion when they saw the cash in my wallet).

Have a great trip -- it is an awesome and interesting country.

[wtown16]

Thanks for the replies! I think we will try to use our credit card for the most part, but will exchange for some ISK. I did let my bank and my credit card know we would be traveling. The last two times we have traveled to Europe our debit card info has been skimmed so we are hoping to avoid that this time. My expectations for Iceland are to see beautiful scenery and to have new experiences! Can't wait.

[gt7301b]

We mainly used our credit cards, but in your case I'd just get cash at the airport to minimize fees. We found an ATM in the main shopping area of the airport.

[osumelissa]

Have a great trip! Iceland is gorgeous...this is almost the time we went last year.

We have a Capital one credit card and debit card, so no foreign fees at all for us. In your case, I would mainly use a credit card, but I do recommend having some cash on hand. We used it for a few cabs and drinks at bars.

[PinkSquirrel]

If you're renting a car be sure to know your CC pin. The N1 gas stations require it to pay at the pump. If for some reason you screw that up you can buy gas cards inside with no pin, then use them at other N1 stations along the way.

We mainly used our CC. We brought some cash and changed maybe $200 of it. We also spent the last of our cash at the Blue Lagoon and paid the rest on our CC.

[Deleted]

Nov 5, 2013 21:58:24 GMT -5 PinkSquirrel said:

If you're renting a car be sure to know your CC pin. The N1 gas stations require it to pay at the pump. If for some reason you screw that up you can buy gas cards inside with no pin, then use them at other N1 stations along the way.

We mainly used our CC. We brought some cash and changed maybe $200 of it. We also spent the last of our cash at the Blue Lagoon and paid the rest on our CC.

Most American credit cards -- even those with chips -- won't work at the N1 pumps.  We have chip + signature cards and weren't able to use them at the pumps.  We got around it by buying gift cards inside the N1 convenience store to use at the pump, but it was a bit of a PITA because we had to guess how much gas card we'd need. 

[aurora]

Nov 4, 2013 20:31:38 GMT -5 v said:

Nov 4, 2013 19:44:07 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Also, if you end up with the equivalent of $20 in local currency at the end of your trip, you're stuck with it because you can't really change it for anything worthwhile - it costs you too much.

We were there over Labor Day.  We had read ahead of time that Iceland is a REALLY credit card accepting country, and it is true that pretty much everywhere takes credit cards, but we ended up using more cash than we planned because we got attitude at a bakery for trying to use a credit card (the morning we arrived -- we hadn't found an ATM yet).

One brilliant thing we discovered... If you go to the Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport on your last day, you can pay using both cash and a credit card.  So we gave them all of our leftover cash, and then paid for the rest on the card, and they were really nice about it (it was their suggestion when they saw the cash in my wallet).

Have a great trip -- it is an awesome and interesting country.

During a layover in Copenhagen once the airport restaurant let me pay partly in Danish kroner, partly in Euros, and partly by CC.  They acted like that sort of thing happens all the time, but I still felt bad about it.