So what? It never failed me at a machine when my chip and signature cards would not work. Isn't that all that matters?

Your US passport says that you may make as many copies of your passport as you want to.
It's all right there, right on the inside cover.

<The Andrews card is a chip & signature card with an off-line PIN. Default transactions require a signature. It is not a chip & PIN card.>

I just used it at a gas station in Cyprus (wasn't open at the time, so no attendant) to fill up a rental car before turning it in. Worked perfectly and am really glad I had bothered to get it. I'm happy with it until something better comes along.

Penn State Federal Credit Union offers the same thing, as do other credit unions and maybe some banks now.

`Of course there's no problem getting cash from an ATM pretty much anywhere in Europe with any sort of debit card. It's gas pumps, tolls, and automated ticket machines that usually hang up American travelers.

At worst, you would spend $5 to join the ACC just to get this visa card - as I said, the card itself has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. I like to use credit cards with good rewards programs for most travel expenses - and those tend to be the chip and signature cards. But it's super handy to have a chip and PIN card for a few of those situations e.g. buying train tickets from machines or buying gas at self-service stations without attendants.

A bonus of joining Andrews FCU is that you can set up a savings account and have a second ATM card as a backup for travel - or use it as your primary travel card so you don't have to risk using your regular one when traveling. The Andrews ATM card has no fee to use and no currency conversion costs. (Yes, I said ATM card not "debit card" - and if you don't open a checking account there, the ATM card will default to your savings account - no problem using it at ATMs in Europe in my past experience.)

[Aren´t you concerned at all that your credit card can be stolen and used without the thief´s knowing your PIN or even your signature?]

Even at home (the US) they do not ask for a signature if it is a small purchase. You have to go over a certain amount for signature to be required.

Bank of America now offers a pin number to use abroad. If your card happens to be with them, go into your online account and request for it to be mailed to you. I have not had to use my PIN because people still ask me to sign when I was recently in Spain. And I had used my debit card before in a pinch. Not ideal, but another option to keep.

As for the OP's question about SNCF, I don't have a specific answer because I haven't tried buying French train tickets. All I know is BoA had blocked my purchases from Spain's RENFE and a Swedish transportation company. Sometimes it's not immediately apparent that they had done so. I had to check my account to see the notification asking if I knew those purchases. Once I click yes, they free the card up.

Andrew, I should clarify that I should have said that in the US getting a chip and pin card at a local bank or credit unit is usually not possible. Your namesake credit union is another thing, of course.

My chip&signature Chase card didn't work on SCNF the first try; ten seconds later I re-entered the same information, and it worked. Lesson: don't quit at the first rejection.

"Lesson: don't quit at the first rejection."

As with SNCF, so in life.

Hard to get in US?

http://creditcardforum.com/blog/chip...dit-cards-usa/

Your list of cards are mostly all chip & signature with on-line PINs. Simply calling a card "chip & PIN" does not mean that you will avoid signing a receipt nor will it guarantee that chip use will be the default method of transaction approval. Those with true chip & PIN cards rarely, if ever, sign receipts. True chip & PIN cards are universally accepted at any point of sale in the EU.

Why should I care whether I have to sign a receipt when traveling in Europe? I suspect most travelers care only about whether their credit card will work when needed - in machines as well as for purchases involving human salespeople.

Beats me, I don't care at all that I have to sign things, why should I?

Aren´t you concerned at all that your credit card can be stolen and used without the thief´s knowing your PIN or even your signature?>>

No, I'm not concerned at all. First, to steal my credit card wouldn't be easy, and if that happened, I'd have more problems than my credit card as I don't know how someone would steal solely my credit card given where I keep it, and I would just cancel it immediately. Secondly, maybe it's different in Europe, but card users aren't responsible for fraud on their credit cards in the US. So why would this be a big concern that something so unlikely could happen? Besides, the only fraud I've ever had in my entire life of owning credit cards, which is many decades, has been online fraud where the thief doesn't need a PIN even in Europe, and no signature is required, either. I don't know the stats, but I would suspect someone physically stealing your credit card and using it without a PIN is not the main form of credit card fraud in the US. I would guess that it is online fraud.