You know, looking at the Dutch train website, it looks like they may also take Maestro cards. This is basically a multinational debit card system run by Mastercard. A credit card still wouldn't work, but it looks like the system is more open than I gave it credit for.

Considering that Canada (a similar market as US) has chip-pin CCs, I would think that the US could follow our lead and do a gradual introduction of them. During transition, keep signature option, but make new readers Chip capable.

In March I was at a small 10 room resort in a village of mud roads, one store, chickens running around, up island in Zanzibar Africa. Their machine was CHIP.

<i>I would think that the US could follow our lead and do a gradual introduction of them.</i>

There are over 11 million credit card terminals in the US. It will take a while to replace them all.

I would also note that the US retailers may simply skip over chip-and-PIN and move directly to contactless payment technologies.

Regarding buying train tickets in The Netherlands: all machines accept coins and (international)debit cards with the 'maestro' logo. This is a specific option you can choose on the machine when you have to pay.

According to the customer service of the NS on Tiwtter (@NS_Online) the tickect machines on Amsterdam CS and Schiphol also accept credit cards.

Did not ask wheter this also includes credit cards without chip/PIN.

The customer service on Twitter responds quickly and my guess is that they have no problems with questions in English.