MasterCard Ecuador Credit Card
Accepted at Dozens of Places in Cuenca

The MasterCard credit card has only become popular with retailers and Ecuadorian consumers in the last few years. But the predominance of cash transactions in Ecuador means that for some big ticket items, you'll pay a premium over the cash price if you use your card.

Visiting Cuenca?

If you're visiting Cuenca or any of the other big cities, most hotels and restaurants, and some smaller hostels, will accept your MasterCard. Supermarkets, the cinema at Milenium Plaza and some retailers will accept it, especially those who sell to tourists.

Living (or Planning to Live) in Cuenca?

If you're already here, or planning to live in Cuenca, you can use your MasterCard credit card for just about every household item, as long as you buy them at the big stores, like Supermaxi, Coral, Sukasa or MegaHierro. Otherwise, it's cash.

If use your card for cash advances, and pay your card company's service fee for international use, you'll receive a big discount when buying big ticket items with cash. There are over 125 ATMs that you can use with your MasterCard, just in Cuenca.

If you're going to live here permanently, you may be better off obtaining a MasterCard from your Ecuadorian bank. It all depends on whether your bank will give you one with no big strings attached.

Obtaining a MasterCard Credit Card in Cuenca

Check that your bank will give you a MasterCard without requiring a "security deposit" to protect them should you decide to leave the country without paying your balance.

Or, if they require security and you have a spare $10,000 that's going to sit in the bank and earn interest for you anyway, letting it become your card's security will work as well.

Of course, if your bank requires no deposit, all the better!

Signing Up for a MasterCard Card

You can obtain a MasterCard credit card at any of the following banks in Cuenca:

• Banco Pichincha, which offers Práctica and Internacional cards, and LANpass and Black LANpass cards (for LAN airlines).
• Banco Bolivariano, which offers a classic card, plus Gold and Plus cards.
• ProduBanco, which offers an international and international Gold card, Supermaxi Gold and international cards, plus Black and Platinum cards.
• Banco de Guayaquil, which offers the classic card, plus Gold and Platinum cards. There are also classic, Gold and Platinum Taca airline cards (great if you live on the US west coast and fly to Ecuador from Los Angeles).
• Banco del Austro, which offers an international card, plus Gold, Platinum and Black MasterCards.

The credit unions don't offer any credit cards.

As in North America and other countries, some of the higher end versions of the MasterCard credit card come with car rental insurance and other bonuses.

Summary

Whether you have a MasterCard credit card from North America, Europe or Australia, or you want one from a bank here in Cuenca, this card will meet most of your needs in the city, and elsewhere in Ecuador.

Read what each bank's versions of the MasterCard offer, what they cost, and what the interest rate is. Then read the fine print (even if you need to have it translated).

If you do all of that, you'll have exactly the MasterCard credit card you want to use here in Ecuador and abroad.

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