Turkey--Any problems using a straight ATM card???
 

After reading lots of information about ATM cards, I realize that in some countries the ATM cards without a pin are not acceptable. Of course, mine do not have a pin.

We are headed to Turkey in a couple of weeks, and I wonder if there have been problems using an ATM card that does not have a pin.

Has anyone been to Turkey recently and had trouble getting cash from ATM machines?

Thanks--Susan

What is a straight ATM card? I have never heard of an ATM card without a PIN. And by PIN I mean a Personal Identification Number. Are you perhaps referring to the embedded microchip that is used in some places?

What do you mean you don't have a PIN for your ATM card?

last i heard, only gay atm cards were useable in turkey.

Ahhh, WalkinAround, you beat me to this question :)

I think Susan may be referring to some of the new cards issued abroad which do not use PINs, but have a chip imbedded for ID. I don't know if that is the case in Turkey. When there last year, I (stupidly) used my VISA card, which ended up costing me a lot. OUCH!

DUH!!! What was I thinking! Of course, my cards have pins.

Yes, I meant the new cards that have the chip. Are those cards being used in Turkey?

OK, that's what I suspected - and to answer your question, I used my ATM card in Istanbul last year with no problem, and it does not have an embedded chip.
Still wouldn't be accurate to refer to it as a straight ATM card, though ;-)

We used a standard bank card, not a credit card or one with an embedded chip, with no difficult in multiple places in turkey as recently as two weeks ago.

Equitravel--thank you for the information. We leave on Friday and I was getting concerned about accessing my account.

You might want to touch base with your card issuer. I never have problems using my card to get cash, but it wouldn't work in Turkey for some reason (and I had no problem getting Euros in Amsterdam on the same trip.) The nice thing about Istanbul was that there were a lot of currency exchanges that charged dirt to convert U.S. dollars to Turkish currency so it was no problem. Another nice thing about Turkey: comparatively LOW on-the-ground expenses. Have a great trip!

Make sure to be extra careful when you use the ATM's in Istanbul.