Having trouble with credit card and debit card working

Yes, as a tourist years ago before I moved moved here permanently.

There are way too many POS terminal providers in Brasil unfortunately IMHO, and some of them do not work with the security protocols of US/CAN systems, depending on which C/C or debit card you are using.

One of the worst offenders for this problem are the red REDE branded terminals. Avoid those as they even have issues today with my Brasilian cards. VISA labelled ones are occasionally more problematic than most, yet I never had issues with my AMEX or MC labelled foreign plastic FWIW. All my cards are Brasilian now though.

Shop around. The lime green STONE terminals worked fine, as did the orange ITAU branded ones. Go to these stores near you and buy R$20 of stuff and find which supermarkets accept your cards and actually work, and use those. The red BANCO 24 HORAS ATM terminals usually always work with every debit card though. I've never had problems there at any time.

What bank are you using back home ? If it is a local credit union, or a smaller internet fintech, or low cost bank that could be the issue. I suspect they are lying to you, not deliberately, but because the minimum wage call center person who used to work at a coffee shop before and is reading from a script now, doesn't realise their cards don't work in Brasil. Can you double check the country settings in your C/C or bank website to double check they are set up properly ?

@NewBrazil

what kind of card is it and which bank is providing it?

Sometimes it might be a security “feature” of your bank that ends up behaving like a bug tbh. Card declining transactions as they’re deemed suspicious (location, merchant, amount etc)

maybe try to have a way to pay with Pix just in case? Use WanderWallet a fairly simple pix for foreigners solution 

@NewBrazil

Some ideas from when I had the same problem in Mexico.

Sounds like defective card readers. (They are probably using the same type of machines.) Try using the cards at some other store to see if they work there.

Clean the mag stripe of the card.

Go to BB and have them see if the card works there.

Hope this helps.

alexanderstphenlange

05/30/26 @haggece8690, @Gabriel Otero.  100%  All  the cards that I use in Brazil are Brazilian now, too, mostly because I got tired of playing POS Roulette in stores, always wondering whether my US credit card would work this time or not!   Nowadays, I make all my purchases with Pix or Brazilian debit card.

I think that foreign (or at least US) bank debit cards become linked to specific Brazilian banks.  While I was still a regular visitor but not yet a permanent resident I always made withdrawals from my US account at Bradesco ATMs, and now I can only withdraw with my US card at Bradesco ATMs -- I get weird error messages at Santander, Itaú and Banco do Brasil machines, even though I do most of my banking at BB.   It may work at third party ATMs, but I don't use them because of security concerns.

Plus you avoid international currency exchange charges on your card transacations!

30 May 2026

In Brazil, I found that PIX is more useful than credit cards.  I have had several cases where the POS machine would not work - some legitimate and some by preference.  It is becoming more and more common that vendors to charge a little more for credit card use.

PIX is accepted and typically preferred - but you will need to have a local bank.

I have an international debit card but I only keep only a small amount of cash in the account - just in case I get scammed.  This is only for emergencies and if I need more, I can transfer to that account - everything is on the phone.

One thing that works well is Apple Pay linked to your credit card.  It used to be spotty but ever since wireless credit card tapping became common, it is my go-to credit card payment method.

@Pablo888

Not really though there are apps (as mentioned above) that you can use to pay with pix without a Brazilian bank account

otherwise 100% agree with everything you’ve said my experience has been the same

It is becoming more and more common that vendors to charge a little more for credit card use.

- @Pablo888

I've seen discounts commonly up to 10% for PIX use. Interchange fees are limited by law to .5% for debit cards and C/C fees are usually around 1.75%. So, why such a large discount ? My guess is that the monthly POS terminal rental is pretty huge, or the business is having cash flow issues and wants their money now instead of later.

Not really my thing though, I'd rather use a C/C and wait a month to pay it off. Leave my money in the bank earning interest. I'm also not crazy about logging into my bank in an ordinary merchant just to use PIX. But that's me.

Thanks for all your responses I haven’t tried to us my card at another location yet. I will this week try again thank for all the suggestions.

@NewBrazil

I’ve had issues where the cashier selects the wrong type of card (credit ou debit?). If they select the wrong one it won’t go through. The last time it occurred to me it was the same cashier, twice in one week! When I corrected her it went straight through. Don’t know if it may be related to your issue.

@NewBrazil
I’ve had issues where the cashier selects the wrong type of card (credit ou debit?). If they select the wrong one it won’t go through. The last time it occurred to me it was the same cashier, twice in one week! When I corrected her it went straight through. Don’t know if it may be related to your issue. - @bepmoht

I was thinking the same thing. When it comes to paying merchandise, I literally never had a problem except when they got the type (credito) wrong.

However, getting cash at ATMs can be a bit of a hit or miss, even on ATMs that previously used to work.

Besides the problems with credit card readers and cashiers, it would appear that many cashiers do not  understand international credit cards and that they can not be used for instalment payments but are actually for "vista" one off payments only. Another problem frequently encountered is using an international credit card on line when making a purchase on line. Many companies although in their stores they accept international credit card payments, will not accept payment for a purchase on line using an international credit card. The use of a credit card enables you to have control and challenge, stop or cancel the payment in case the product is faulty or damage, or the services not provided.

Yesterday I went to a Banco24Horas ATM to grab some cash as I was too lazy to walk over to my branch. My debit card didn't work and the screen said the machine could not ready my card. Odd that. This card is two years old, doesn't have any marks on the chip or the black strip on the back, and has always worked before.

Stopped at a merchant and bought a bottle of water. The card worked in the POS terminal there.

So, I walked over to my bank branch and tried the ATM. It didn't work there either, and I got the same  error message. An employee sitting at a counter beside the ATM saw me retrying the card, and asked if she could help. I explained the problem and we sat down where she tried it at her terminal. Got the same message again. So, she cleaned the chip and mag strip with alcohol and a piece of cotton, and voila, problem resolved.

@hagece8690

If it says “can not read”, a quick cleaning might help and is certainly worth a try. But when I used to retrieve cash regularly, quite frequently the ATM could read my card and guided me through the entire process (select language, credit or debit, enter amount, type of bills…) until the final confirmation, and only then it gave a seemingly generic error message. I reckon that this happens when there are communication problems, for example they can’t reach the system that has to approve the transaction. Sometimes it works anyway if you try different ATMs, in my village we have a bank with 4 ATMS, and it happened frequently that I needed to try at least twice until it worked. However in many cases (if there were a lot of people queuing) I could see that locals got the same error message too, so maybe they just have an unreliable internet connection.

I never even got that far. The cannot read your card message hit the screen about 5 seconds after I put it in. The two people in front of me didn't have problems though. Very odd however that a POS terminal read my chip OK for the bottle of water, yet two different ATM's wouldn't. It's Brasil LOL.

In my experience, many merchants have switched merchant providers and choose a merchant account without foreign credit card transactions as that is cheaper for them. Many shops that used to work fine with a US card, no longer accept them as they have switched to a cheaper terminal (often REDE).

Often, I have found, inserting the card rather than "proximacao" works as that requires the physical card.

Some supermarkets (particularly in larger cities) have a floating credit card machine that you can ask for. Tell them it's a "cartao internacional" and then they call the manager to bring the new "maquina". Smaller shops, smaller cities, you are out of luck -- get a Brazilian credit card or use PIX. Too much credit card fraud in Brazil, so merchants and processors are reducing their risk.

I have also been told that some international debit cards only work if you say it is a credit card, not a debit card...

So it all boils down to if your card is part of the PLUS+ network - normally its on the back of your bank card. or other thing thats super important here - if your card supports visa debit - just say credito each and every time as you will just have it directly yoinked out of your chequeing account.

I think that using pix or local bank is better But even getting reliable money transfer services is really hit and miss and really falling back myself here to direct SWIFT transfers so I dont need to provide horrific amounts of information's to third parties