Hi there. I’m traveling from the US to England for a week and am wondering how much money I should save to bring and how common it is for places to take discover credit cards

16 comments

  1. Is discover a visa or MasterCard? Should be fine if so. How much cash is a how longs a piece of string question.

  2. 99.5% of places take card these days, mostly contactless but Chip & Pin is still available if your bank is run by cavemen.

    “England” is very vague, how much cash you need depends on a huge number of things.

  3. Visa: pretty much everywhere

    Mastercard: pretty much everywhere

    Amex: a lot of places

    Discover: pretty much nowhere

  4. Visa and MasterCard are accepted everywhere. American Express is accepted in some places, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere that takes Discover card in the UK.

  5. Virtually nowhere will accept Discover, it’s not really a thing here.
    How much money you bring entirely depends on you, eating out in big cities is compatible, and hotels etc have a huge range from super cheap to mega expensive. We don’t have as much of a cash culture as the US (public transport etc, especially in London, no cash at all). You can pay for food etc with cash of course, it’s just more normal to pay by card.

  6. Discover cards aren’t really a thing. I’ve only ever heard Americans say the name

  7. You’re going to have trouble with the discover card, it’s mainly US. You’ll need a Visa or Mastercard. Amex doesn’t have the same coverage as those two.

  8. we don’t use modern money, everything is barter. so bring a goat, some gold doubloons and a marriage age daughter.

  9. Discover isn’t really a thing here, you’d have more luck trying to pay with handfuls of gravel.

    Do you have a Visa or MasterCard you could use instead? Failing that, some places take American Express.

    It’s impossible to say how much money you’ll need without knowing where you’re going and what you plan to do when you get there.

  10. I implore you to get a Visa/Mastercard, or a travel money card. Avoid Amex – that’s also not widely accepted and I don’t know anyone in the UK who has one exclusively because they know “Sorry we don’t take Amex” isn’t uncommon

    Discovery will unfortunately get you nowhere – i don’t think you can even use it at every ATM.

    So please bring another card!

    The UK is less cash friendly these days, so really do get a card.

    As for budget – that’s a “how longs a piece of string” question, and depends on where you go and what kind of accommodation you’re in. If you’re having to eat out for three meals a day, it’ll get expensive real quick but it’s hard to know without your plans.

  12. Youll find it about 50% more expensive than the US, more perhaps in London.

    I would budget on £50-60 per day per person for basic meals outside London. Fancy eateries will cost more of course. Drinks, beer around £4 per pint outside London….It’s stronger the further north you go. Coffee around £2-3.
    I use amex for the avois points ( approx 50% places accept) otherwise visa/ mastercard.

    Which part of England are you visiting?

  13. /u/cam_saul shared their experience a year ago:

    >I used my Discover to buy a train ticket once for one particular train line in the UK but that was the only place I ever saw that had a sticker saying they accepted it. I’d say stickers advertising acceptance for Discover there are about as common as ones advertising JCB or Union Pay acceptance are here in the US, which is to they aren’t.

    >On that note tho you can use Discover anywhere that accepts JCB. Not that that is going to help you much in the UK IIRC, but I was able to use it in a lot of places in Japan.

    >Get a Visa or a MasterCard for the UK

  14. The only place I’ve ever seen a Discover card logo here was alongside a JCB one on a major bank cashpoint.

    I couldn’t honesty tell you whether they are accepted in any shops as in all my experience of retail I’ve only ever encountered visa, Mastercard and AMEX (and maestro in the olden days). I would assume acceptance rate is going to trend towards zero.

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