With regard to the use of credit or debit cards in Cuba the following applies. No card issued by a bank that has any connection with the United States will be accepted in Cuba.

Therefore Capital One, American Express, Egg and MBNA cards will not work in Cuba.

UK debit cards with the VISA logo are usually accepted by your tour rep to pay for trips but will NOT be accepted to purchase goods. They can, however, be used in ATM's (if you can find one and it is working) or to draw money from a Cadeca.

Much is made of the so called 11% plus charge for using your credit card in Cuba, but this is a myth.

As the CUC is not traded internationally, any transaction in CUC's has first of all to be converted into $US in order for it to be charged to your card. Therefore if you spend 100 CUC it will cost $108 (100 x 8%). An exchange fee of 3% is then added so the amount actually billed to your credit card will be $111.24 (108 x 3%).

When you receive your credit card statement the rate used to convert from US dollars to Sterling is the business rate which is higher than the tourist rate so that helps reduce the total transaction costs. The 10% surcharge for using US currency does NOT apply on a credit or debit card transaction, it only applies when exchanging US dollars cash.

Most UK credit cards charge a foreign transaction fee of 2.75% which they disguise in the exchange rate back to Sterling.

The Post Office and Nationwide credit cards are just two of the cards that do not levy a foreign exchange fee. However the Nationwide now pass on the 1% fee that Visa charge them for the transaction on credit and debit card transactions and it will be included in the sterling amount shown on your statement.

Finally it is always wise to inform your credit card company of your dates of travel and to which country you are travelling to save any problems with your transactions whilst abroad.

Should you use your bank debit card to withdraw cash, the rates at participating CADECA exchange counters are processed at a rate of 1.1192. You should also be aware of the charges most UK banks apply.

The following is the policy of Lloyds TSB:

Whenever you use your debit card abroad, they convert the amount to sterling using their exchange rate on the date they take the money from your account. They will also include a 2.99% foreign exchange administration fee for every overseas transaction. When withdrawing cash abroad, either at a bank or an ATM , they will charge you 1.5% of the amount withdrawn. The minimum transaction charge for this is £2.00 and the most they will charge you for each transaction is £4.50. This applies to all foreign cash transactions.