None of my cards are chip and pin, and I've been able to use them in most places. Occasionally I can't use them in a fast food place or a ticket machine, but I always have plenty of cash (in my money belt), so I haven't been inconvenienced.

thanks pegon the road. i think i'll bring more cash than i was planning on to offset any potential problems.

This has been discussed many times on the Europe board, so you can probably find some related threads. I know that the new British Airways Visa Signature Card (from Chase) can be used as a Chip card in Europe, but I can't recall if it's Chip and PIN or Chip and Signature. You can also buy a pre-paid Chip and Pin card from Travelex, but the exchange rate is not at all favorable (you lose more than 15% on the transaction). But the real value of the card is not to make every purchase but to have it for those times when you can't use a regular credit card (automated train ticket, toll, and gasoline machines are the main culprits).

In most cases, you will have no problems at all with a regular magnetic strip card, but some places (particularly those that don't cater primarily to tourist) may say they can't process the transaction or simply won't.

For myself, I've never had a problem using a regular credit card in Europe, including on a recent trip to Berlin in October, but other posters have reported difficulties.

I think the Paris metro ticket machines only accept the chip cards! I only know this because I've been reading up on the metro and how to use it (I'm afraid of getting lost or stuck!)

If you are not driving, you will not encounter the situations where being without chip and pin causes the most trouble -- self-serve gas stations (especially on weekends) and automated toll booths. If you are driving, the high-cost prepaid card might be worth having because even a pocket full of cash would not help at an unattended gas station, though with enough advance planning you could probably avoid needing a fill-up on Sunday.

A Chip and Signature card is not good enough. You may as well have one with a magnetic strip.

Here in the Netherlands you will have problems with a magnetic strip card since most machines here now only accept a chipped card, and do not have a slot for swiping a strip. Other countries are not yet so far, but it won't be that many years before it they are.

Do not bring cash to Europe. Use ATMs when you are here with your normal bank card. Much cheaper, and safer.

I was in Amsterdam and the Netherlands last March and had no problems using my magnetic strip credit card anywhere. Of course the situation may have changed in the past 10 months.

I do agree, however, about not carrying around huge wads of cash to Europe from the U.S. That's actually foolish and dangerous. No need at all for that. ATMs are in no way affected by this, and you can always get money at any European ATM from your debit card from the U.S. The chip-and-pin issue affects ONLY credit card transactions and never ATM transactions.

Well, sometimes a chip/signature card is good enough, or at least better than not having one.

During our last trip to France (fall, 2011), we were glad to have our US Bank Flexperks Visa with a chip. Except for fuel pumps and toll machines on one autoroute system, it was accepted in many cases where our Capital One magnetic strip card was not: train ticket machines, Metro machines, parking garage payment machines, and some grocery stores and other merchants whose terminals could only process chipped cards.

A frequent contributor here, DebitNM, did extensive research and found a chip/PIN card issued by Andrews Federal Credit Union. You can read about her experiences obtaining and using the card in her trip report here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/a-wander-through-france.cfm

Thanks so much. That's the main thread I was thinking of. But the subject as come up several times.

thanks to all for your responses. i will look into the cards mentioned and get one of them as a back-up.

[And I promise to finish the report shortly, honest!]

Hi Judith,

Check out Paul's thread about the State Department Federal Credit Union Chip and Pin. And ways the public can get those credit or debit cards from them.Really good info.He always posts the latest info about the Chip &Pin Cards CC Cards.

https://plus.google.com/communities/114498166198962100983

It's under Tips,Tools and Deals 4th thread from the top right now right now.

>>Here in the Netherlands you will have problems with a magnetic strip card since most machines here now only accept a chipped card, and do not have a slot for swiping a strip.

REALLY? So I will not be able to take cash from the ATM's there with my currant bank card?

I got the Andrews chip and pin card, based partly on Debit's experience. Every time we go to France, we have one more "issue" with our cards. Since this summer is a complicated six week trip, I imagine we'll experience tolls, Sunday gas stations, unmanned ticket stations, and non-functional ATM's all in one trip. I'm glad I have the card.

Also, the family deals we get with train tickets need to be retrieved from kiosks. They can't be printed like the prems.

One caveat, even though the exchange rate fee is good (not as good as Capital One), you have to pay the Andrews credit card with your Andrews savings account. That means transferring money to the account first. I'm going to hook it up to my paypal account; that's what I read someone else did. For that reason, I'm only going to use it when advantageous.

Christy is correct about how to pay for the Andrews CC? We also used their ATM card, so we had cash in the base account . When the CC was due you just transfer the money from the base account into the Visa Pay account and it gets paid automatically. Transferring cash into the base account from any other bank account (non Andrews) is pretty easy to.

We are just back to Provence and will be using the card again shortly. One change to our credit card plan - Chase's Southwest CC (premier card) now has no foreign transaction fees and as it is our home airline, we will be using it in lieu of the Cap One card. The SW cards does have an annual fee, of $99 but when we signed up for it in December, we got 50,000 points and an annual 6,000 at renewal.

We have the Andrews Federal Credit Union card. We both had trouble with our atm cards in France last year. Thankfully I brought cash to pay for the apartment and we ended up getting cash on a credit card with fees. We arrived in England and they worked fine. Our Bank could give us no reason for the foul up. I have never had this problem before in any other country but France. Any clues why?

Somethings here that are just plain wrong but then again, unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation especially about this subject.

Andrews does not charge a foreign transaction fee on its credit cards. Period. Same rate as Capital One. Period. (Nor does State Department FCU and now Pentagon FCU the other issuers of chip and pin cards in the USA (more on this in a second)).

And I pay my Andrews credit card bill through my Fidelity bill paying account just like any credit card. You make them a payee, add their billing address and the account number and you can most assuredly pay the bill like any other credit card bill. Period.

Now to the op's question. For the most part, as of now, as long as you stick to touristy type places you can use the antiquated American magnetic strip cards without too much trouble. Off the beaten track? Well that might be another problem and is somewhat country specific. As noted, the Netherlands has a lot of merchant who don't accept magnetic strip cards such as the Dutch National Railroad. But almost all hotels and high scale restaurants that cater to tourists do accept magnetic strip cards.

Now another caveat and an interesting problem although it doesn't seem to be overwhelming. Although the three FCU cards advertised as chip and pin, Andrews, State Department FCU and Pentago FCU, all default to chip and signature when run through a pos terminal that accepts chip and signature. Well what's the problem? Some (not a whole lot but some) merchants will not accept a chip and signature card when the receipt spits out claiming the liability on the merchant is different on chip and signature than chip and pin. They void the transaction and will not accept the transaction. Unfortunately there is no way you can tell the pos terminal in these cases to use the chip and pin feature of these cards. OTOH these cards do function pretty well at automated kisosks and auto fuel pumps i.e. when no human is present, they will run as chip and pin.

It is not an overwhelming problem right now but it has been reported on other blogs with very affluent posters who wouldn't dream of paying cash for anything (such as myself of course).

Visa and mc claim this is an illegal practice that merchants must accept all valid visa and mc cards but the eu is in the process or has passsed legislation giving merchants the right not to accept a credit card without a pin.

This is an ongong situation and pits the interests of merchants who don't want to pass up the big bucks American tourists spend in their shops against the realization that chargeback and fraud is an increasing part of doing business with antiquated American credit cards
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Hopefully at some point in the future we will have a solution to all the inherent problems. But for the time being, to the op, you'll probably be fine.

Note to Jinky: Chip-and-pin cards for use in stores and restaurants and ATM cards for use in ATM Machines are two completely different issues.

The chip-and-pin issue for payments does NOT come up in any way whatsoever with ATM cash withdrawals. You do not need a chip-and-pin credit card to make ATM withdrawals snywhere in the entire world.

USAA chip and pin mastercard. Pretty sure their no annual fee credit card is available to anyone, not just military. Has a 1% fee on foreign transactions, but worth it IMO as a backup card in Europe. USAA is huge and has good customer service, should be pretty straightforward to get a card.

http://content.usaa.com/mcontent/static_assets/om/Media/docs/126885.pdf