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You’ll find that Mastercard and Visa are more popular in Taiwan than American Express, but you can still pay with your Amex card in some places or use an ATM. Despite that, Taiwan is still mostly dependent on cash. In some places, like family restaurants or small shops, you may not be able to pay with your credit card at all.
But this shouldn’t be a problem since you can use an ATM to withdraw cash with favorable exchange rates and potentially low fees — or none at all.
American Express cards are accepted in Taiwan, but not as much as Visa and Mastercard are. If you want to withdraw cash with your Amex card, look for Chinatrust Commercial Bank ATMs.
Discover cards are rarely accepted in Taiwan. At the time of writing, there are no ATMs where you can withdraw cash using a Discover card.
| Merchant acceptance | ATM acceptance | |
|---|---|---|
| Visa |  High | High |
| Mastercard | High | High |
| American Express |  Medium | High |
| Discover |  Low | Not accepted |
US Dollar to New Taiwan Dollar Exchange Rate
When you use your credit card in Taiwan, you may incur fees, such as:
Yes, you can. To avoid this, get a card without foreign transaction fees and decline DCC if offered.
Most travel cards come without foreign transaction fees. If you don’t have such a card, consider getting a second card that offers this perk without an annual fee. This way, it won’t cost you anything to own the card and you can exclusively use it when you travel abroad.
You shouldn’t have any problem if you have a chip-and-PIN card. Just make sure the logo of your card matches the logo on the ATM or POS terminal.
Yes, it’s safe to use your credit card in Taiwan. But for added security, you should always try to:
If you’re a frequent traveler to East Asian or Oceania countries, you could use a card like the Asiana Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card by Bank of America. The card has no foreign transaction fees and lets you earn miles on your purchases — which you can redeem for flights between the US and Taiwan or any other East Asian country.
Taiwan is still heavy on cash usage, and most of the small and family-run restaurants may not accept credit card payments. In this case, you could make a cash withdrawal from an ATM. Keep in mind that you’ll likely pay a cash advance fee, which can be up to 5% — that’s up to a $25 fee for a $500 cash withdrawal. Additionally, you’ll start incurring the cash advance APR from the moment you make the withdrawal.
One way to avoid paying the high APR and the cash advance fee is to get a debit card, which usually comes without such fees.
In general, they don’t. But if you want to pay for your ride with a credit card, you can use Uber. Typically, Uber is less expensive than a regular taxi in Taiwan anyways.
Credit cards aren’t as widely accepted in Taiwan as in other places, but they’re safe to use and you shouldn’t have a problem paying where credit cards are accepted. Your only issues might be the foreign transaction fees and DCC, but if you get a travel card and decline DCC when offered, you’ll save some money.
See more guides on using a credit card in other countries.
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