Credit / Debit Cards to use in Poland

Wrong. Period.

mbank.pl/en/guide/faq/#tabs=1

I quote.


Now, back into your cave!

Remind me, why does this forum allow guest posters again?

If you're legally resident here, you should be able to use any retail bank.

But be careful if you're using a foreign account. There's a problem that Polish banks are trying to sort out at the moment. It involves debit cards from certain banks which are affiliated to Visa Electron and Maestro. Not all Visa Electron and Maestro, just some. If you have the wrong one, it won't be accepted in Poland. Credit cards are not affected, and not all Visa Electron and Maestro are affected.

Visitors should probably bring cash and make sure their credit card isn't at it's limit, just to be safe.

Mostly Maestro is at fault - Mastercard have all but admitted that the introduction of Maestro was an absolutely cockup from start to finish, and they're scrapping Maestro in favour of Mastercard Electronic now. I'd actually recommend that anyone coming to Europe (or going from Europe) obtains some sort of Visa card - Maestro is all but useless in many cases. UK Maestro cards have had a hell of a time being accepted in Europe - mainly because they rebranded Switch but didn't bother to actually upgrade the infrastructure.

Never heard of any issues with Visa Electron mind you - apart from the usual problems of it not being accepted anywhere that uses offline terminals like on trains or planes.

delphiandomine, there is a big difference between what is written on some website, and real life.

probably your very short mind cannot understand this

That's what the UK Foreign Office is saying in its advice to travellers to PL. They also mention VISA, but my friend from Scotland who was here last week couldn't use her Maestro card. Luckily she'd brought a credit card too. The FO says that banks are working on the problem.

Obviously, I don't suppose you actually have any money to put into a bank account. Spamming Polishforums constantly obviously isn't very lucrative. How's the Adwords ban affecting you?

I can assure anyone on this forum that mbank is more than happy to open accounts for foreigners - the only condition is that you need to have an address in Poland that you can use, though you don't have to be registered there.


I doubt they'll fix it anytime soon - they've had what, 3-4 years to fix it and it's still a problem? Then again, even in the UK, Maestro/Switch acceptance has always been rubbish. Probably the best advice is simply to steer clear of Maestro full stop!

Visa is safe though, as far as I understand it - the only thing is that people should be aware that Visa Electron isn't accepted everywhere. To be fair, I have a Visa Electron card in Poland through mBank and have never had problems with it being accepted here - though I *think* PKP Intercity won't accept it for tickets onboard.

The best idea is as you say - always take a backup credit card.

Is it possible to use a US Credit card to buy directly from a Polish manufacturer--I live in the US and find it hard to pay for merchandise without paying large fees using things like Pay Pal, DOT Pay, or wiring money.

Thanks!