Using foreign credit cards online

I know in the UK a lot of online places will only deliver to the address your credit card is registered to. Problem is, I would like to buy some stuff here for our office (projector, printer etc) and I have my work credit card, but this is a UK credit card. Will I be able to find places that accept a UK credit card to deliver to a German address?

Probably, why not just ask the place you will order from to make sure though.

Yeah, I think it depends where you're buying from.
Just found out I can't buy flights from HLX because the credit card is NZ. :0(

Well I haven't actually found anywhere yet, just thought I'd ask before starting what will probably be a quite time-consuming online search for several items (given my german is not that good). If a German person asked the same about the UK, I would tell them they'd be better off going to a shop themselves. I was just wondering what the situation was like here.

I'm not convined you are correct with the UK scenario but you probably have more experience of it than me. Most online places (in UK or Germany) I have used have the option for a billing address and a delivery address

I still have US credit cards and my billing address is my German one. Sometimes they ask for a photocopy of the credit card to verify that I have it in my possession.

Now I usually just do bank debit with online German retailers though. Typically cheaper that way as well.

Oh ok, well maybe we just tried different places and the practise is not as widespread as I thought in the UK. But most places I have tried either wouldn't let you ship to a different adress at all, or at least not for the first order. Oh well, I'll just try a few places here then, at least nobody has said "no way, impossible", that is all I wanted to know so I don't have to demand a German credit card from work.

EDIT: @TCH it's stuff for work so i don't really want to do a bank transfer from my private account and then go through all the hassle of claiming it back etc.

It's UK sites that are thre worst for this from what I hear.

I do it all the time. I have an Irish credit card which I've used for online purchases for years now.

Yeah we take any old crap credit card and deliver to a different address! But we do have some extra security checks in place.

If selling heavily nicked gear like computer equipment online then retailers have to be super-cautious. So will depend on what you purchase.

Ironically German online companies are generally a lot laxer on payment issues. Not 'cos they are easier going, but more 'cos they are naive to the dangers.

I needed a SCSI card for a customer in the UK and thought I might as well order it there and get it delivered there, saves cost. First of all the companies website, although it had a pulldown menu for 'Other Countries' wouldn't let you enter anything. So I rang them. The lady said at the other end that they didn't deliver outside of the UK (they're a European wide firm with offices here) so I pointed out I wanted it delivered in the UK. Then came the credit card question, sorry its registered to me here in Germany, no can do, so I said that I would just have to go to a competitor which made th ephone go very quiet. I don't quite understand this, I could walk into their shop in the UK and buy it over the counter.

There is unbelivable and uneccessary paranoia in the UK regarding "non-standard" credit cards such as foreign ones, especially since the new "chip and PIN" system which started earlier this year. For "No customer present" transactions a UK vendor must now satisfy himself the credit card is legal, or they take responsibility for any subsequent fraudulent use even if the transaction is approved at the outset, but then subsequently the card is found to be not valid or stolen. As a result most online services won't take orders unless delivery and credit card address match. Ironically Argos are one of the few that do. I ordered goods on the Argos website last week for delivery to a UK address and charged to my (German) credit card here... The paranoia extends to the unwashed public too. Most UK EBay sellers refuse to pass over their bank details to a buyer for immediate funds transfer in payment "because EBay say it is a security risk", and despite the fact these details are written in large print on every cheque they hand out...

Only time I've had trouble using a German credit card in the UK is when trying to buy Eurostar tickets online. They wouldn't accept my German card to pay for the tickets from the UK site in GBP. Only from the German site in Euros, where the price is significantly higher. Cunts.

This BS from shops/websites kinda defeats the point (at least the major benefit) of having a credit card... oder?

It's not the shops themselves, but the paranoia instilled in them by the credit card companies, or, put another way the transfer of risk from the credit card company to the trader.

Trying to prevent fraud is one thing, but hiking the price of a return from London Waterloo to Paris Gare du Nord by the equivilant of GBP 100 when paying in Euros is fucking outrageous.

Business is business. If the market can stand it...

Business? More like daylight robbery.

I have a UK credit card with a German address and have found that several online shops here in Germany won't accept it because it is not from a German bank.

One way I got around a credit card country of issue problem was to allow the transaction to crap out and then phone a telephone helpline to sort it out. I did not mention anything about country of issue - they then took the details and allowed me to collect the flight tickets in question when I got to the airport and showed them the credit card.

I don't believe they can always tell the country of origin from the number. The first 4 digits are the issuing bank or agency. I have an RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) credit card issued in Germany (as they took over Santander Bank Germany, who earlier took over Bank of America Germany from whom I got the original card) and it has the same first 4 digit identifier as my UK RBS card...

It's usually the billing address that gives it away.

It's not always because they refuse to accept it though. Sometimes if you order on the internet the webpage only accepts UK addresses.

When I wanted to book train tickets from TheTrainLine.com I had to call them up and get them to manually put in my address because it wouldn't work on the webpage.