Ok, new morning and had coffee. I see the flaw in my above comment re: Nav. vs. Nav.Decv., in that both are used by residents so both must be able to load value to spend down, not just add transport passes. Thanks for waking me up.

<i>I hear what you are saying about diff technology but it is a money loser for Visa to not have its card usable any where in the world.</i>

Not as long as consumers are willing to jump through hoops to use their cards abroad. The card networks have calculated that as long as the fraud losses that chip'n'pin technology could avoid is less than the cost of rolling out millions of new machines, they'll stick with the obsolete way.

Of course, this kind of calculus is emblematic of what's wrong with American business - they won't look beyond the next quarter, where (in this case), the rollout would hurt the bottom line in the short term, but save billions in the long term.

I have a Blink card from Chase. It's like paypass, but the RFID is visible.

I'm assuming that this is still not usable in Europe. Is that correct?

I don't use the &quot;Blink&quot; option often in the states, but I am getting used to using it that way more often, as I don't have to swipe or sign with the Blink.

Get this straight: American credit cards are completely usable throughout Europe. You just can't use them in most automatic machines. You have to go through a human attendant or cashier.

Absolutely true but......

you run into clerks who will tell you the credit card is not usable; most of the time this is not done to try to scam you, they simply in the course of their work do not run into credit cards that do not have chips...they insert the card into the chip terminal and it doesn't work (although the terminal is supposed to tell them to swipe the card).....just smile and tell them to swipe the card (show them in sign language if necessary) or ask to see the manager but don't let them tell you that you have to pay cash.

I agree with xyz--just back from 4+ weeks in France--not too many issues but &quot;swiping&quot; is now second choice for cashiers--they will do it but on two occasions needed help from a colleague and we had one refusal at a resto in Paris. Also, watch out for unstaffed toll booths and gas stations on autoroutes, which can be the case at night. Not sure if there's a workaround for the gas stations but for toll booths just get in the cash lane.

I tried to obtain a US-issued visa or MC with a chip--could not find one--Wells Fargo will imply it has one but it's the tap or wave card, not the same. My AmEx Blue card has a chip and pin but AmEx not too popular in Paris and less so in the country.

We always ensured we had cash and weren't too bothered but if US doesn't catch up soon I can see this becoming a hassle, particularly outside large cities.

My Canadian Visa expired and the new one does have a chip and a pin number, I can not wait to use it in Paris next month!

As France was virtually the first country to roll out chipped cards, their original technology has now been superseded in the rest of the world bya new standard (EMV), which isn't compatible with the original French system. For some time, those with chipped cards issued outside of France (and Belgium) couldn't use chip and pin terminals in France, but had to have their cards swiped. But the French have been modifying their terminals so that increasingly they are compatible with dual standards. On my last visit I could use my UK-issued chipped cards in all but one situation - unmanned independent fuel station, but could be used at Carrefour fuel stations, and all check outs and ticket machines.
So those with a new chipped card has a very good chance of being able to use it in all situations in France, except in a few isolated cases. One of the resons for the slow adaptation of EMV standard in France is that card terminals are usually bought outright by retailers (rather than rented, as in other countries) and many establishments without signifiant foreign customer base have been reluctant to fork out more money for an updated system.

Just to add to my above post that when a non-French chipped card is inserted into a terminal, it seems to take significantly longer to obtain authorisation, often a minute or more. This can cause the shop staff to think there's something wrong with the card and takes it out and attempts to swipe it. Then authorisation is declined (because it's a valid chipped card) so the whole process starts again!
I had a staff member at MacDonalds (of all places!) getting quite impatient with all this but knowing it was a valid card I proceeded to reinsert the card, tap in PIN and wait, only for the keypad to blink and the terminal to print out a receipt!