how easy is it to get cash advances on visa and mastercards
in kenya, egypt and ghana? can this be done easily through
atm machines or do you need to go into a branch to do this?
thanks
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I haven't been to Ghana, but you should have no problem in
Kenya and Egypt - in the main cities anyway. In Nairobi I
used a hole in the wall and had no problem getting cash
advances. In Cairo you will have to go into the bank and it
can take between 10 minutes and several hours depending on
how busy they are and how much they feel like working.
Outside of the main cities it gets far harder to get
advances, especially in Eastern Africa. You might also
struggle to find a bank in some towns, so it's probably
worth getting some extra cash when you leave the cities (and
keeping it in a safe place!!). You do get charges quite
high commissions on travellers cheques in some of the
Eastern African countries - all the more reason to get
cash advances from the cities!
Good luck and have a good trip.
i pretty much agree with Nathan the only thing to add is
the ATM in the Cairo Hilton, after not seeing hard currency
for months on the road it was quite a novel experence to
pop the plastic into the slot and have it spit real USD or
Stirling at you, and you will pay high commissions in banks.
AfDrmrer...did you get a choice of currencies? That
is..could you ask the machine to give you $ or LB's? My
experience is that it gives you the local currency.
If you get a choice...does it vary with country?
Don't know about Ghana. You will be able to get a cash
advance in Kenya and Egypt. You will need to go into
the
banks. I never found an ATM that you could use as a
cash
machine (if you have a Barclay's card - maybe in Kenya)
The first place that card seem to work is Zimbabwe.
Also,
you can not count on the machines working all of the
time.
International authorization lines are often down.
I was in Ghana in 1995 and you could get cash advances with
a Visa card at the main Barclays branch in Accra the whole
process took about 2-3 hours - as far as I know it was the
only place it could be done in Ghana back then.
Came back from Ghana 14 days ago (great country). With a Visa card, you can get cash advances at ATMs at Barclays bank in Accra (High Street); several other towns also have Barclays, e.g. Cape Coast. Note, however, that there is a rather low limit on the amount drawn in ATMs. If you make your transaction inside the Barclay bank, the limit for Visa is about 170 UK pounds (per day).
With a Mastercard, there is no limit (none that I found, anyway). However, Mastercards cannot be used in ATMs. Plan on spending at least one hour for an "inside" transaction (in blissful aircondition) and note that Barclays closes already at 2 pm.
Happy travels to a lovely country with wonderfully friendly people.
In Accra there are three Barclays Bank ATM's. One at Circle (Kokolo), one on High Street, and one near Makola market. They are usually working and are very convenient. There is also an ATM at Barclays in Kumasi. I think the other smaller towns don't have ATM's yet.