Capital One gradually moving some cards from Visa/Mastercard to Discover, do you still consider it a good long-term international travel card setup?
The no foreign transaction fees are great, but Discover acceptance overseas still seems weaker than Visa/Mastercard, especially for smaller merchants and international travel. Having a reliable card while traveling internationally is pretty important to me.
Curious what frequent travelers here think.
Will Capital One still be a good international travel card after moving to Discover?
byu/anonymoux_x inCreditCards
Posted by anonymoux_x
7 Comments
Been using Capital One for work trips and the no foreign fees are clutch but yeah Discover acceptance is pretty sketchy outside major cities. Had issues in smaller places even here domestically so can’t imagine trying to use it in rural areas overseas
Would probably keep it as backup but definitely want a Visa or Mastercard as primary when traveling internationally
If you assess based on Discover’s historic acceptance rate: no.
If you assess based on the premise that C1 didn’t buy the Discover network to preserve it as-is, but rather has massive plans to undercut other networks and rapidly increase global adoption: yes (but it won’t happen overnight)
European here, I live in the U.S., I’m also airline crew. If you travel internationally extensively you want to stay away from Discover or Amex. Visa and Mastercard have near universal acceptance around the globe.
At the moment, generally no. It’s on a per-country basis. Discover has partnerships with JCB and other networks, so you’ll have better luck in countries that widely accept those. For now, MC or Visa is the better option for international travel
Discover acceptance internationally is still weak, but growing. For example, it was widely accepted on my recent trip to Mexico. You can also reliably use discover anywhere that accepts the Diner’s Club network, which is more common in Europe.
However, I don’t expect that the Venture X will ever be moved to the Discover network unless the Discover network is able to offer high-level travel protections that compete with Visa Infinite.
Other popular cards like the Savor and the Venture have yet to be moved, and I am guessing that they will be the last to move, once the network is more internationally established. That’s just my supposition, though.
How will this limit/affect product changes between Venture X and Venture/VentureOne?
Yeah, I travel internationally frequently, (mostly EU/UK but), and I enjoy the use of my Savor card absolutely. But when/if it moves to Discover, it will absolutely be a problem for me.
I would absolutely not call it “reliable” when/if that happens for that card, and of course am perusing other options as another backup for cash back and no ftf cards in my spend categories.