Credit Cards

Prior to this trip to China, I made sure the credit cards I will be using here are secure and are accepted in the country. The two cards I brought to China with me were my Discover and Visa cards. I was told by the Discover card representative that China widely accepts Discover and all I had to do was just look for the China Union Pay sign or sticker. And Visa is internationally accepted everywhere so I was positive that it will never fail on me. I was at a shop about to make a purchase and I whip out my two credit cards since I didn't have enough RMB. The workers stared at my cards for a good three seconds acting like they've never seen a card before. They first told me they don't accept credit cards and was wondering if I had any cash, I politely said no. Then they turn around and whisper to each other, and finally grabbed their swiper to try out my cards. They grabbed my visa and looked at it thinking it won't work, I figured out of my two cards the visa would most likely work since visa is accepted everywhere. After a few minutes, the visa unfortunately did not work. I was in huge shock, so I asked them to try my Discover Card. They said no and kept pointing at the Union Pay sticker, so I said my card can be used anywhere in China with the union pay sticker. They finally gave it a shot and it worked! It's real interesting to see how much some small businesses do not want to use their credit card machines which is real similar to the states due to merchant fees. I now know what to look for when purchasing goods on my credit card. :)