Can I use my visa cards in Makka and Medina?
Visa cards are accepted everywhere. However, there is a catch. When you make a purchase there, the currency used is SR. Say, you made a purchase of SR 50. This is equivalent to $ 13.58, using the current value of $ 1 = SR 3.68. Then when you come home and receive your visa statement, you will see a charge of $13.58 plus some convenient fee, which is a percentage of the purchase price. According to Shareea, this is called Ribaa, or usury. It is Haram, because the item being exchanged here is money.
