>>Make sure that your magnetic strip is not too worm- I had a car that worked perfectly at home but not always in Europe.<<

Since credit cards have chips, having a worn strip isn't an issue. One doesn't swipe the strip but inserts the chip. (Understandable - when you were visiting Europe, most cards only had magnetic strips)

You can't use a magnetic strip even on a debit card in the Netherlands. It has to be a chip and PIN, or contactless (up to a certain amount only). Most terminals no longer have the ability to swipe a magnetic strip.

I have a chip and pin on my cards for a few years now - but like here I thought there were places that took just strips and to say so for many countries is hard with the rapid development everywhere by chip and pin cards. So yes forget about the strip if never needed. Thanks for the updates.

I live in the states and I got a chip and pin card from Barclay (and some others offer them too). It's a bit interesting as you can only use the pin in unmanned places (e.g., gas stations, museums, the tube in London). We got that CC so that we could get gas in unmanned stations. It worked perfectly. In restaurants and hotels they still make you sign. I wish the pin worked everywhere!

In Iceland the only place we needed any money was to use a few bathrooms. Everywhere took CC, even for small purchases. In Norway we used CC almost everywhere too even on the small ferries. I don't think we even got any money there. In Stockholm we also used CC almost everywhere. The museums in Stockholm have machines for tickets and our pins worked there too. We did go to a food hall in Stockholm where you couldn't use a CC for purchases under $10.00. We scrounged around our bags and found enough money.

We typically get a small amount of money from an ATM for incidentals but we have been getting less and less as CC are the way to go.

<<We did go to a food hall in Stockholm where you couldn't use a CC for purchases under $10.00.>> How recent was that?

We were in Stockholm 2 years ago. The food hall was the only place we had an issue. We were only spending the equivalent of about $4.00 so maybe that was the issue.