Yes, true, about 30 million national chip and pin ATM and credit cards stopped working from Jan. 1st. The credit card companies caused the problem and have no idea how to fix it (so far).
No idea if foreign cards are affected too, but I would think so. Chip and pin cards issued after July 1st 2009 are not affected at all.

Looks like a year 2000 problem. Cash rulez anyway!

All countries worldwide are affected, except the USA. People are advised to use travellers cheques. Nice...

Time to dig out my DM and Lire?

that's so funny about using TCs, I'm about the only person on Fodors who says they aren't so bad as a backup. I always take some when traveling.

I haven't been to Germany in several years, but didn't have any trouble using my chipless American ATM card when I was there a few years ago. Is that impossible now? I was in Dresden and Leipzig.

When you say foreign cards won't work, do you mean foreign cards with a chip, like from UK? American or other cards with the strip technology will work, won't they? All places took them when I was last there.

"Chip and pin cards don't work anymore in Germany. "

Bullshit. Just A quarter of Germany's cards - those made by one French company - have stopped working. And some ATMs have been reprogrammed to accept even those


"All countries worldwide are affected"

Even bigger bullshit. Gemalto's cards are working outside Germany. No cards other than Gemalto's are affected.

What, exactly, is the point of inventing total claptrap, then posting it?

All German cards with pin and chip issued before July 1st don't work worldwide since Jan 1st., 30 million cards, those are the facts, so simple, are you really as stu*id as you claim?
Get a brain flanneur! (and get informed)

Cards without a chip (=all US cards) do work.

G&D in Munich claimed their cards would work, but it's just the same crappy software.

From today's FT. Which those who can read can buy in Germany:

"Germany's savings bank association admitted yesterday that a "belated year 2000 problem" had affected more than 20m of 45m debit cards issued by the public-sector banks.

A further 3.5m of 8m credit cards were also affected, according to the association, which represents the small institutions that hold the greatest share of the country's retail savings.

The association of private sector banks said 2.5m of 22m cards were affected, while the association of mutual banks said the problem was restricted to 4m of the 27m debit cards issued by its members"

In a country with 100 million cards issued, 30 million duffers don't constitute "chip cards don't work".

And some German cards not working outside Germany ISN'T the same thing as "All countries worldwide are affected"

Whether you understand the difference is doubtful. But whether you're panic-mongedring because you can't understand English, or panic-mongering because you're just very, very, stupid: you're panic-mongering.

Mine worked just fine today here in the Netherlands. It is purely a German thing and a lot of those are now working. It is because the software didn't recognise 2010 as a date apparently, so a somewhat belated millennium bug.

flanneur that's yesterdays news!!! Yes, those 30 mio CHIP CARDS don't work! Too hard to understand for you? Obviously!
Just unbelievable.
P*I*N A*N*D C*H*i*P
P*I*N A*N*D C*H*i*P

This square thing on top of a card, not working.. Understood?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...llions-germans

A 2010 software bug has left millions of German debit and credit card holders unable to withdraw money or make payments in shops, and thousands stranded on holiday with no access to cash.

About 30m chip and pin cards – a quarter of those in circulation in Germany – are thought to have been affected by the programming failure, which meant that microchips in cards could not recognise the year change to 2010.

A French card manufacturer, Gemalto, admitted today it was to blame for the failure, which it is estimated will cost €300m (£270m) to rectify. Gemalto, whose shares dropped by 2.6%, said it was attempting a software update, but might have to replace the cards.

Gemalto-manufactured cards in other countries were not affected.

Silly me, I thought that when someone writes "All countries worldwide are affected, except the USA." they mean C&P cards everywhere.

As it is, it's only cards from one company in one country with the rest of the world unaffected.

Yes, ALL 30mio chip and pin manufactured before July 2009, the rest are non chip and pin. This is as it is today at this moment.

Guardian has no info (and is a "propaganda newspaper").

Since they have been affected since Jan 1 it has taken you a long time to come up with your scare story. I read about it on January 2 in my Dutch newspaper.

No, it's no scare, but at first nobody thought much about it, since during the holidays everything is shut down anyway and nobody needs cards that ungently. Life starts again next week, we'll see how things are by then. Yesterday the whole extend wasn't even clear. This is Germany, noone works ore does anything between Dec 24. and the end of the first week of the new year. (We aren't Dutch ). You should visit Germany during those days.

Maybe Munich and Bavaria in general doesn't work until end of first week of January but the rest of Germany does. I do. Saxony does. And my pin and chip card works, my colleague's doesn't.

Nope, noone works, many immigrants in the malls, shopping, but everybody else... You can drive around town without any jams, just heaven.

I know you had to work today in Saxony, you poor people. , right.
No, here those days between christmas and the end of the first week just don't exist. Yes, we know it's on the calendar, but it's not like anybody would expect anybody else to do any work, even if he or she is actually at "work". Is it really different in Saxony??

Man I do like my hometown

It's slow and I actually enjoy being in the office. ;-)

And we'll get you catholic folks who had a holiday today later in the year on Buß- und Bettag which is a holiday exclusively in one German state anymore ... and that is Saxony!