I’m not against American Express nor am I advertising for Mastercard, however the latter’s latest commercial rings a bell.

It seems as if as Americans, we have always been told American Express is the best credit card for travel. And maybe that’s partially true. In the time of travelers checks, it certainly was. Now in terms of assistance, sure. Amex has a great travel team to help you coordinate your plans, and if anything goes awry while you’re gone, American Express will always work hard to get you out of a bind.

However, what no one seems to tell us, is that the card probably won’t work anywhere at all. My first time to Vietnam, I broke an ATM trying to pull out 3 million dong (the equivalent of roughly $150 USD) for a friends who’s Amex, no one in the country wanted to accept.

A friend of mine perhaps said it best:

“I called American Express to tell them I would be traveling for five weeks in Asia and wanted to make sure they wouldn’t block my card for fraud. Instead of saying, ‘don’t worry, we’ve cleared your card for travel’ they should have said, ‘don’t worry, you won’t be able to use your card anyway'”. 

As a frequent traveler and foodie, I think this commercial is truly priceless.