On 23-Jan-12 02:09, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:36:16 on Sun, 22 Jan
2012, Stephen Sprunk remarked:
Major payment cards are accepted by thousands, if not millions, of
merchants all over the world. They are arguably more universal than
cash, which is mostly limited to a single country or group of countries.

There are also millions of merchants who don't accept credit cards.

Of course. But there are millions more merchants that won't accept
foreign cash, or at least not _all_ foreign cash.

And plenty of folks in far flung countries who'll take dollars in cash.

US Dollars and, to a lesser extent, Euros are a special case. Even so,
they're still probably not as widely accepted outside their home
countries as payment cards.

But for buying big ticket items in expensive shops, a credit card is
more widely accepted than random foreign cash, I agree.

Even domestic cash may not be all that welcome for big-ticket items due
to fears of counterfeiting, regulations intended to stop money
laundering, the cost of securing and transporting large amounts of cash,
etc.

Also, my experience has been that while foreign cash may be accepted, it
is with a horrible exchange rate; one only does that for the sake of
convenience, and the time to separately exchange foreign cash for
domestic cash would be well worth it for any significant transaction.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking