Family Vacations Go Smoothly with MasterCard

I recently returned from a family vacation and would love share with you in this sponsored post about how I used my MasterCard to cover purchases because it’s accepted everywhere. And acceptance matters.

Whenever we travel, the entire family goes with us. Obviously for most families that means the parents and the kids, well, for us that means the dog too. Since we became parents, we’ve been spending Mother’s Day each year in Florida. It’s a great way to spend time together as a family at the beach and since we go down at Mother’s Day we can spend the day with my 85-year old grandmother as well. Because of our preferences for an ocean front rental and traveling with a large dog, planning is a little more complicated than it might be otherwise and requires more research and forethought. We’ve never stayed in the same rental unit more than once because rates and dog policies seem to change from year to year.

We’ve had issues with our bank accounts being compromised in the past so as often as we can we try to find businesses that will honor credit cards instead of checks since we’re so leery or paying with that method. This year, we found a rental that fit the bill to a tee and would accept our deposit and payment via MasterCard so we could ensure we were “safe” and our information wasn’t compromised. Even before our recent identity theft issues, we’ve never been big on carrying cash. We like knowing where all of our money is spent and that our bank accounts are protected. During our trip, we had lots of fun eating out and making sure to enjoy every moment together as a family. Most of the time things went as planned, but it’s usually the negative amongst the mostly positive that stand out in your mind.

When traveling with kids, one of the big tips I can give is to try and stick to your usual schedule at home as much as possible while you’re away. You can obviously be flexible, but trying to loosely base your schedule will make everyone’e life much easier. On our vacation, one of our outings was to the state park. We planned our trip for early in the day, before the crowds, before the sun was too intense, and before nap time to ensure solid sleep when we returned.

We pulled up to the gate and my husband attempted paying with his American Express card. The attendant took one look at the card and handed it back to him explaining it wasn’t accepted. We were hoping to stay on schedule and avoid a possible trip to the ATM several miles down the road to pay for our entrance fees, so I pulled out my usual card for purchases – MasterCard. Without much of a glance, our card was swiped, and we were on our way. But this wasn’t our only brush with stress this trip and our schedule potentially being thwarted. We went to Sam’s Club to get gas since it was so much cheaper than other stations and some snacks for the drive home. After our issue at the state park, I became vigilant in noticing signs regarding payment wherever we went. I was shocked to see the signs at Sam’s Club gas station which indicated no cash and then inside which excluded other cards we had but accepted MasterCard.

Fortunately, two embarrassing situations were averted because we had more than one method of payment on hand. I’ve learned that MasterCard is accepted everywhere and acceptance matters.

Have you ever been embarrassed because of a credit card rejection?