Chip & PIN - Alternative to Andrews
 

About a year and a half ago I went thru the arduous process of applying for an Andrews Globe Trekker credit card.

I used it without incident in Provence and Paris. Where ever a swipe card is accepted the card defaults to that. Otherwise I just entered the PIN.

I just returned from Italy yesterday evening and had a very different result.

In train stations I used the Andrews card and it just went thru. I never had to enter a PIN.

However, in a few places where a PIN was required (such as a vending machine to buy vaporetto tickets) the PIN was rejected and I had to use cash.

In the past year or so has anybody come across other good chip and PIN cards?

Thanks.

Some transportation kiosks will accept magnetic strip cards. Transactions at these locations will typically not require your using a PIN as some foreign cards will not have a PIN anyway.

If your PIN was rejected, there could be several explanations. Last week, when purchasing an RER ticket at a kiosk, my PenFed card showed invalid PIN as the explanation for a rejected purchase. I next tried my Crédit Lyonnais credit card with the same result. In this case, the machine´s card reader was at fault. My PenFed card work as anticipated at another nearby kiosk.

On one earlier occasion, my PenFed was again rejected at a ticket kiosk in Paris so I just used cash to finish the purchase. I called PenFed and asked what had happened. They showed no attempt of any charge. Either the kiosk was defective or the RATP credit card bulk processor had rejected the charge for an unknown reason.

I would submit that there is nothing at all wrong with your Andrews card. You could call Andrews and ask but outside of some definitive proof that your card is unusable or defective, I would simply characterize the incidents as unusual and something that could occur using any credit card.

I called Andrews from Venice and was told that they showed no rejection.

I had that happen at 2 or 3 vaporetto machines. Also one other time.

It was a little annoying since I had absolutely no trouble the year before in Provence.

I wish there was some way of testing the card.

When I was in Montreal last year I used the card a few times. The problem with that is that it defaults to sign when both are accepted at the location.

It is hit or miss. My husband and I both had no luck with two of our atm cards in France last May. We got to the UK and they worked. Our banks could give us zero reason. Thank God for the Andrews card as that is what we used for all purchases. I am taking two different atm cards in Nov. Fingers crossed. I am also bringing a couple hundred euro for walking around cash as this trip is Germany and they like cash. I just wish the banks could give us an answer because we tried like twenty atms.

From time to time you run into network problems no matter what caqrd we used. Last month in Canada, I tried to use an ATM to withdraw a little Canadian cash. I got the message unauthorized transaction. I called the issuer and they had no record of having declined the transaction; the card was fine. As noted it's hit or miss and can happen with any card in any location.

The Andrews card works as intended. If the pos terminal takes chip cards, it defaults to cdhip and signature. That is what it tries first. If the pos terminal says no go with chip and signature, then it goes to chip and pin. The problem is there are some merchants who on their own will not accept chip and signature despite the fact the pos authorizxes and processes the transaction. They are under the mistaken impression that their liability is different with chip and signature than chip and pin. And there is nothing you or the merchant can do to get the pos terminal to process such a transaction as chip and pin.

If this is an issue to you, as of today to the best of my knowledge, the only bank that issues a true chip and pin in the USA is USAA and only on its mastercard, not on its visa. I understand USAA has become a bit more picky about requiring some connection with the US Armed Forces to issue a credit card; I was grandfathered from years ago so I have the USAA mastercard with a chip and yes it functioned every time like a chip and pin The problem is USAA charges a 1% foreign transaction fee whereas my Bank of America chip and signature does not and gives me a 1% rebate. So my choice is obvious for foreign travel.

I wouldn't be all that upset with Andrews; it does function as intended.

Look, figure it out in terms of ONE percent. Is it worth that much to be assured you aren't going to have difficulties? I can understand it more if we are talking about a thousand dollar plus hotel bill; not so much for a 100 dollar food bill but to each their own.

People off the street can't get a USAA card, anyway. That makes it sound sort of easy to get one, and there are rules and that is that. It isn't just some amorphous flexible relationship to the military and it isn't just recently, I asked them about it some years ago and the answer is no to most people, you or your spouse has to be or have been in the military, or your parents had USAA. It doesn't count if you had a parent who was in the military, for example, and did not belong to USAA. I even work for the military and have for 20 years (as a civilian contractor), and my father was in the Navy, and I could not qualify.

Just to be clear, anyone can use the USAA Federal Savings bank, its wealth management services, or its credit cards. If they couldn´t, USAA would be wasting a lot of money on its current advertising campaign both on television and in print. However, USAA membership and using some of its insurance services can be more restrictive and is usually limited to military officers and their family members.

Further, USAA, unlike many other banks, does not add any fees to foreign credit card transactions. What USAA does do is simply pass along, to the consumer, the 1% currency conversion fee charged by either Visa or Mastercard. Other banks such as PenFed, Andrews, and Capital One actually absorb the 1% currency conversion fee. However, USAA does offer a 1% rebate on all credit card transactions effectively nullifying the currency conversion fee.

Most large banks, offering no annual fee credit cards, charge a 3% transaction fee on foreign purchases. 1% of this 3% fee is paid to either Visa or MC for the currency conversion. The remaining 2% is taken by the bank. The bank, in taking this percentage, does absolutely nothing for its clientèle, provides no additional service, incurs no marginal expense to recoup. Banks take this money for no other reason than their usually unsuspecting customers allow them to take it.

Shopping around for a user friendly bank can save one money. And many of us prefer banks which do not impose unnecessary fees even if the fees are seemingly but a small percentage.