I am aware that currency exchange offices who "sell" you cash charged onto your credit card also cha

The answer I usually get to this question is: "you can withdraw cash with your credit card from an ATM", but Venezuelans cannot withdraw more than 200 Euros from an ATM per month. However, we can get up to Euros 2000 in cash only from currency exchange offices that accept credit cards, but these type of currency exchange offices tickets for nascar texas race are not common.
In Madrid, Prague and Rome, I have seen and used currency exchange offices with the VISA/MASTERCARD sticker that allows travelers to get any amount of cash and have it charged to their credit card, but I am wondering if there are such currency exchange offices in Lisbon.
Here's information on the currency exchange desk at Lisbon airport. I usually would not suggest this but can you obtain some euros in Venezuela before you leave? At the airport, the exchange rate will be poor and you will incur interest on your card from the day of withdrawal.
There is currency exchange control in Venezuela. We can get "cash" from our banks, but it is restricted to 400 Euros per year and, as I said above, 200 Euros in cash through ATM's abroad. We can use our credit card up to 2000 Euros per year, but, if you visit a country where credit cards are not widely accepted, that leaves me "victim" to black market Dollars and Euros, tickets for nascar texas race which are difficult to find, expensive (10 times higher than the official rate) and who can guarantee their "quality"? In total, Venezuelans are not allowed to spend more than around 2500 Euros per year abroad. Why? Well, that what happens when you live in a "socialist" country where "freedom" is limited for "everybody" (unless you are "connected" to the government).
tickets for nascar texas race I have posted this question here on the Portugal forum because I am interested in visiting Sao Tome Principe flying through Lisbon. If I were able to travel through Madrid or Rome, I'd do it, but, from Venezuela, tickets for nascar texas race the route through Lisbon is the easiest and less expensive one.
I am aware that currency exchange offices who "sell" you cash charged onto your credit card also charge you a fee (1% if you want US dollars; 10% if you want Euros), but it is much less expensive than to get black market Euros or dollars.
Ira Sparkchaser are right on it is very expensive and in my experience it is more that 1-10% it is more like 25%. It is not a credit against your card's account - it is a loan that starts the minute you go thru with the transaction and continues at the high rate until you receive your bill and pay it off.
Why can't you just use the ATM Euro's you can get and put everything else onto your credit card (hotel, restaurants, major purchases, car transportation). That's what we do, and we travel keep just a handful of euro for small things.
If your credit cards function the same as ours in North America, any cash advance on a credit card comes in at about 20 per cent interest charged the instant of the advance. That's by the card issuer, and sometimes applies to the entire credit balance, not just the advance.
Whenever I can, I follow Nanabee's advice: "use the ATM Euro's you can get and put everything else onto your credit tickets for nascar texas race card". However, my intention next year is to visit Sao Tome Principe, and I have noticed that budget lodging does not take credit cards but cash.
Ira Sparkchaser are both right, but this how the official rate competes against the black market in Venezuela: Official US Dollars cost 6,30 Bol vares (our local currency), but black market dollars tickets for nascar texas race cost 35,0 Bol vares. If I were to travel entirely on 35 Bol vares-Dollars, I could not travel. So, even at a 25%, having tickets for nascar texas race Euros/Dollars charged onto our credit cards is a good deal. However, we, Venezuelans, are only allowed to use 2500 Euros per year abroad, and only 400 in cash, and this isn't exactly good if places are not used to working with credit cards.
I'd be really interested in what you're doing in S o Tom e Pr ncipe, too. Not a popular destination, but I've done a fair bit of work with people involved there. I assume you are going there for some good purpose, as they need it.
We are also allowed 400 dollars to be used online per year, and, sometimes, I have been able to pay for hotels with this money. In total, considering credit card, cash advance and online currency, Venezuelans are not allowed to spend more han 4000 dollars per year, 3000 of these only with credit card. It does not matter how many credit cards you have, you are only allowed to use 3000 dollars with them abroad.
4. Venezuelans must buy a plane ticket, submit it with other requirements and receive approval on behalf of the government, which will give the yes to our banks to activate tickets for nascar texas race our credit cards, only during the length of our trip, and to give us the 400 euros in cash. Outside the length of our trip, credit cards don't work out.
5. Bolivares, our Venezuelan currency, aren't tickets for nascar texas race accepted at currency exchange offices abroad. When foreigners visit Venezuela, they can only get Bolivares here, in Venezuela, where currency exchange offices tickets for nascar texas race sell and buy only to them, who must show their passport and return plane ticket.
l am only going to Sao Tome (not Principe for budget limitations. plane tickets between islands cost 250 dollars and the flight to Sao Tome from Venezuela is already expensive, at least for me) for visiting reasons. I have been doing a lot of reading about it and it has caight my attention in a way that very few places have done it. I realize hat it is not a common or standard place to visit, but this exactly why I want o visit it. I visited Tobago last and this year, and you have no idea (probably you do, I apologize for assuming this) about what that little island, which is not supposed to have too much to offer, tickets for nascar texas race actually has.
Well, although I have managed tickets for nascar texas race to travel for the past years with all these restrictions, somehow, this trip to Sao Tome is becoming very challenging. Lisbon was, or still is, supposed to be my salvation in order to buy cash with my credit card. However, I have not found anything, so I am starting to lose faith in it.
TAP offers the most comfortable connection from Venezuela to Sao Tome, but it stops at Lisbon. I could fly with IBERIA, and stop at Madrid, where currency exchange offices accepting credit tickets for nascar texas race cards exist, but I would also have to stop at Angola. Not only I would have to pay for my ticket to Angola, but I would also have to pay for a ticket from Angola to Sao Tome, and this is making the trip too expensive for me.
Boy, you have a lot of restrictions to deal with! I am actually fascinated by your plans, as I have some limited experience as a writer/editor/publisher, tickets for nascar texas race with S o Tom . So I'm trying to tax my brain to find solutions for you.
Is there any way you can get some sort of sponsorship for your trip? From an NGO or international development agency that would front the costs? A grant? USAID gives them out fairly liberally. It depends on why you're going, of course.
Not wanting to get political, tickets for nascar texas race but you could also consider moving to another country without tickets for nascar texas race all of the restrictions Venezuela tickets for nascar texas race imposes on its citizens. Worst than Spain under Franco. The State Department report is overwhelming.
Just brainstorming, but you might want to try El Corte Ingl s, the huge department store. I am pretty sure they have currency exchange, and they have excellent customer service tickets for nascar texas race for tourists. They're located very centrally in Lisbon.
Not wanting to get political, but you could also consider moving to another country without all of the restrictions Venezuela imposes on its citizens. Worst than Spain under Franco. The State Department report is overwhelming.
It's not as easy to just pick up and move to another country as it is to move from Ohio to Arizona. Finding a job, getting work visas, the actual move itself, etc., and in many cases it's pretty near impossible.
StCirq. I have heard of people who talk to shops and come to an agreement of giving them cash in exchange of a higher commission charged on their credit cards. I have written to a hotel where I stayed once during my first visit to Lisbon to see if they can find that out for me.
Robert, "leaving" Venezuela has become the new national trend, but like Sparkchaser said, leaving a country isn't that easy. A lot of people have left and are trying to leave, although there are also a lot of people with hope that the socialist government we have will be the one will actually leave... Eventually.
BomDialLisbon, I had not thought of trying Corte Ingles; I will write to them. About contacting the Venezuelan embassy: they are part of our government and it is our government whobhas imposed such restrictions. Besides, our government considers "this buying of cash with our credit cards" illegal (just like the American government forbids Americans to travel to Cuba), to the point that we could be fined, if they found out, or even blocked from "the system" and never allowed to use our credit cards again abroad.
I do have to double check this information, though. The person with whom I have been emailing does not seem to speak English very well, and I need to confirm that he does not mean "getting money through an ATM".
Ah, desculpe! I had misread the previous posts to mean that it was completely permissible to obtain cash, up to the stated amount, via credit card. I suppose contacting the Embassy wouldn't be such a good idea after all!
The manager of the Bom Bom resort on Principe told me that only Dobras are possible to buy with credit cards at a bank on the islands, but that I cannot exchange what is left over after my trip into Euros.