Does anyone know whether San Pedro restaurants & grocery stores will accept US debit cards? Or is it only a credit card? Please advise.

Hi they do not accept North American Debit cards their are banks that you can take money out of. But most restaurants and grocery stores accetp credit cards.

Also I have lived in San Pedro for a year now and use my credit card frequently (travel award miles) I have to date never had a problem with using my cards. just in case you were worried about that.

I have used my Wells Fargo debit card for over 2 years now, No Problems.

If your debit has a Mastercard or Visa logo, you should have no problems.

Just check to see if your charges will be subject to a foreign transaction fee. If so, get another card.

Thanks for the info. Schwab has an on-line High-Yield Investor Checking Account that refunds all ATM charges and charges no foreign transaction fee. It includes a VISA Platinum Check Card. There's no minimum balance, so we'll just add to the account before any foreign trip; otherwise, we;ll just leave a small amount in it at other times, although whatever money is there will earn 4% interest. Seems like a good way to say all those added fees that banks & credit card companies seem to love to tack on!

I use a US debit card here - no problem. However I don't analyse the fees & conversion rate so I don't know what your effective costs are versus using good ole cash.

Mine charges a percentage plus the banks are now adding fees to use their ATMs here. On average it costs me 5US for a 250US withdrawal.

Capital One is THE credit card to use. They don't tack on the foreign exchange fee.

Bring all of the US$ you can....that gives you the best exchange rate.