QANTAS Cash Hi all, thought I'd pick some more seasoned brains.

QANTAS Cash

Hi all, thought I'd pick some more seasoned brains.

My QF Cash card has had a slightly damaged strip so I am looking to replace it before backpacking around Europe at the end of the year.

My question is three-fold:

Firstly, I seem to remember having read there is a replacement fee? (I believe it is only about $10 so am not too concerned but if it is substantially more Ill consider other cards etc)

Secondly, has anyone had difficulty with people not understanding it is a debit card and not just a ff card? (I used it when it when QC was brand new in Singapore and few shop keepers etc. understood it was a debit card but thankfully I was able to explain. I didn't have this issue in the States six months ago. However I am less certain about my capacity to explain in German, French and Italian.

Thirdly, in the States nobody seemed to like using pay pass (/ few shop keepers knew how to use it) and as such the slightly faulty strip became more annoying. What is the prominence of pay pass in Europe (specifically London, Paris, Germany and Italy).

Thanks!

I used my Qantas Cash card in England, Belgium and Qatar earlier this year.  I had no trouble in any of those places. I tapped it and also used the good old plug in and enter your PIN with no hassles.  I have also used it in Bali without incident. 

I have used mine in the UK, Bali & Vietnam, worked perfectly all of the time

I've used my QC card all over the shop and never had any issues. Even at a store in rural Botswana it worked fine.

As long as you can plug in the chip you should be fine. Alternativley when is your year up? If you are changing levels or retaining Silver and above they will send you a new card for free!

Unfortunatley I wont scrape enough status credits before I leave and the card itself doesn't expire for another few years. Glad to here you didnt have issues in Botswana, ill back my odds in london!

Hugh1 - we travelled in Europe in June/July, and the Qantas cash card had a better acceptance than our previous trip when they were relatively new.  Main issue then was in gas stations, cant recall getting a knock back this time round

Thanks, its reassuring to here nobody having issues in much more remote parts of the world that western europe! 

Have used QC card in Canada, USA, Spain, Greece, Austria, Germany, France  and Japan - worked just like a normal MasterCard everywhere. Can also access cash from ATMs for a small fee (although apart from station at CDG, the French train system tix machines don’t like “foreign’ credit cards of any sort)

Two provisos: when checking into a hotel I now use a normal Amex card for the up-front room authorisation. I made the mistake of using the QC card for that once in the USA and it blocked access to a substantial amount of my US Dollars - I had to ask the hotel to change to the Amex and get the authorisation to drop out otherwise I would have left the states before being able to access the US$ Then used the QC card at checkout.

 Other thing in Japan: card works everywhere as debit/credit card; but it has limited access for cash from ATMs (which is the same for a normal foreign Master credit card there. For cash it works only on certain networks).