Second question from newbie: ATM usage in South Africa

For background, on our last six-country trip through Europe (including
one Eastern European country) we again discovered that ATMs have come
to be the best way to get local currency in foreign lands. This holds
true most everywhere -- the days of AmEx travelers checks are gone.

Or maybe not.

Our financial institution here in the USA issues a "Check Card" (which
functions both as a credit card and a debit card) with a Visa brand
and number, that also has the Cirrus logo on the back. (They don't do
MasterCards.) The Visa card worked flawlessly on the Europe trip. But
there seems to be a problem with using it in South Africa.

Maybe.

A search of the ATM locater at Visa's website shown only a few usable
machines in Jo'burg, and only a couple in Cape Town. None anywhere
else in the country. Yet I read elsewhere that there are thousands of
ATM machines everywhere throughout the country. (Incredulity episode
number two in planning this trip to South Africa.)

So I then called the Cirrus folks (which is usually associated with
MasterCards, whereas Visa cards normally carry a Plus system
affiliation) and asked if my Visa card would work in their MasterCard
Cirrus machines in South Africa (of which there are many).

They didn't know. They said it was very unusual for a Visa card to
carry a Cirrus logo on the back. The first four numbers on any
ATM-usable card identify it as either a Visa or MasterCard here, and
an ATM that takes only one brand won't accept any other. (Here,
however, almost all ATMs accept both brands.)

I then called the Visa USA and Visa International lines and asked the
same question. They didn't know either. And my financial institution
didn't know, and referred me back to the people I had already called.

Soooo, do any of you people out there know for sure if a Visa branded
Cirrus-affiliated ATM card will work in one of the MasterCard Cirrus
affiliated ATMs in South Africa (at places like Standard and ABSA
banks, for instance)? I can't get an answer from here, it seems.

Not being able to get an answer will mean having to go out and buy
thousands of dollars worth of AmEx traveler's checks, and then deal
with cashing and converting them to Rands all across South Africa.
(Whew, this trip has sure gotten complicated...)

TIA,


Caveat