Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

What is a good chip and pin card that works in Europe?

What is a good chip and pin card that works in Europe?

Old Apr 17th, 2017, 07:11 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
What is a good chip and pin card that works in Europe?

Since I want to minimize hassle, I understand many American cards with chips do not work sometimes in Europe. We will be staying in Paris for 10 days.

What card do you recommend that works there?
Edward671 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 07:43 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 42,602
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
I'm sorry but both my "American" Visa and Mastercard cards have worked in Paris every time I have used them. Never had any problems with the chips but perhaps I have just been extremely fortunate, stayed in the right places, bought the right things from the right vendors, etc.

I understand your concern and I appreciate your desire to minimize hassles but sometimes a certain degree of exaggeration causes unreasonable and unnecessary preparation.
Dukey1 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 07:49 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
We have chip and signature cards issued in the US and had absolutely no problems using them in Paris. The cards are issued by Chase.

True Chip and Pin cards are rare in the US, and you would only need them in a very few places and I don't think any of those places are in France.
Kathie is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 08:00 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 27,609
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
I have a chip and PIN/signature card issued by penfed.org. I had to join a support the troops organization for a minimal fee to qualify for the card. Most of the time it defaults to signature, but I have been able to use it a few times when a PIN was essential. This was mostly ticket machines, but I noticed that more recently some machines took the card without actually asking for the PIN.

My other cards are chip and signature. My last trip they worked everywhere, but it is annoying to have to sign when no-one else needs to.
thursdaysd is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 08:35 AM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,969
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
It totally depends on WHERE you are using your card and for HOW MUCH.

It does not help to hear experiences from those who used the cards in a manner where the PIN was not needed if your usage requires a PIN.

Even before I finally obtained a CHIP and PIN card from 1st Tech Credit Union, I was able to use CHIP and Signature card at a vending machine IF the amount was trivial requiring NO authorization of any kind - no pin, no signature. I did not even need a CHIP if a person can swipe and print out a signature slip.

I used my CHIP and PIN card extensively in France last December at RATP and SNCF vending machines for non-trivial amount. For those who only used cards at places with human beings who could accept signatures, would say no PIN was needed.
greg is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 08:55 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
This comes up often here. It is extremely rare that one will have trouble using a USA issued card lacking a pin but I can't tell you it will never happen. But those instances are few and far between.

For whatever reason, the overwhelming majority of USA banks have decided to issue cards with the emv chip called signature preferred cards. If you are using such a card at a human being perssoneled (sexist free) terminal, these cards will default to signature. It is problematic whether the human being will have a pen or will start cursing you as a dumb American but that's the way it is.

Many of these signature preferred cards but by no means all have pin capabilities at kiosks, automated gas pumps and the like. An example is the Pen Fed cards referred to above as well as cards issued by Barclays Bank USA. Other cards have no pin capabilities. But...

MasterCard and visa have issued regulations prohibiting merchants from not accepting cards that are otherwise valid lacking pins. However that is of little solace to you if a merchant violates these regs and you can't use your card to purchase gas on a Sunday afternoon in rural France. I have complained several times to mastercard and visa regarding the ticketing machines of the Dutch National Railroad which do not accept cards lacking pins but they (MC and visa) say they are looking into it but haven't done anything about it.

There are 3 institutions in the USA which issue pin preferred cards which anybody can obtain their cards. These are First Tech FCU, UNFCU and SDFCU. The last one issues a signature preferred card but will issue a pin preferred card upon request. I do not know of any other US institutions issuing pin preferred cards open to everybody.

Whether you have to move heaven and earth to obtain a pin preferred card is up to you. Certainly there are more important things to consider such as lack of annual fees, lack of foreign transaction fees and the rewards program. It's too bad the US banks have decided that chip and pin is not a priority but the USA is not the only country which has gone in that direction.
xyz123 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:02 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 72,635
Likes: 0
Received 50 Likes on 7 Posts
>>I understand many American cards with chips do not work sometimes in Europe.
janisj is online now  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:12 AM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 42,602
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 3 Posts
"It does not help to hear experiences from those who used the cards in a manner where the PIN was not needed if your usage requires a PIN."

Sorry, I disagree. Why? Because the fact that people actually DID use cards in France and a pin was not needed simply reinforces the notion that the OP is probably not going to need to GET some sort of "special" card.

Just because a "pin was not needed" doesn't mean that a person's card doesn't have one.
Dukey1 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:14 AM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You don't need one, the main usage is in any machine without a person. So that would be buying rail tickets or unmanned gas stations and toll roads. Otherwise, don't worry. And you don't need one to buy metro tickets, either, you can just use cash in many machines. Of course you can always buy a rail ticket from a ticket clerk if you must have one and didn't buy in advance online.

If you are just in Paris, you won't be renting a car I'm sure, so the gas stations don't matter. Use euro coins in the metro ticket machines.
Christina is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:20 AM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 72,635
Likes: 0
Received 50 Likes on 7 Posts
>>You don't need one, the main usage is in any machine without a person.'any' machine . . . at a few machines.
janisj is online now  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:23 AM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"
You understand incorrectly (but xyz lives for questions like this you have made his day )

There is no need at all to get a Chip/PIN card."

Isn't that what I said. There are people here, however, who make a big production as to how Americans are victimized by not having pins or that the USA banks have done something wrong. And then these people start a frantic search for something that is for the most part unavailable.

Personally, I am a great believer in internationalism for things like that and would have preferred we had gone in a different direction just like it annoys me that in this modern age, the USA is just about the only country that hasn't adopted the metric system (my own symbolic protest is I keep my display on my smartphone on Celsius but then again I get weather reports telling me to expect up to 10 cm. of snow). And I rage that we are robbing our Treasury of millions by continuing the idiotic practices of issuing paper money for $1 and $2 and continue to mint pennies. Just shows the USA isn't as smart as we're told we are!
xyz123 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:33 AM
  #12  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 17,932
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The reason the NS don't accept signature cards is because of fraud. Since there is no way to confirm the person purchasing tickets at a machine is the owner of the card unless a PIN is used any one could either use a stolen card to buy tickets or claim they didn't authorise the payment.
Since the train journey would have taken place already NS would be out of pocket.

There are only 13 stations that accept credit cards and they nearly all also have a ticket counter where a signature card is accepted.
hetismij2 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 09:37 AM
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I used Barclay's Arrival Plus MasterCard for PIN & Chip when I was in France (& England & Ireland) in 2015. It was handy for buying train tickets from unmanned stations. I also had a Charles Schwab debit card for surcharge-free ATM withdrawals.
platamama is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 10:45 AM
  #14  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
hetismij2...but then again any unpersonneled kiosk or the like which accepts cards lacking pins could be subject to fraud and if the credit card company authorizes the charge, the merchant is not responsible. My point is that this is in violation of mc/visa merchant agreements and I am sure they have received many complaints regarding this but have done nothing about it. In today's day and age, the vast majority of time, if the card does not have provision for pins, it is honored although there may be maximums.

Incidentally, in the USA today, the overwhelming majority of merchants do not bother even having customers sign for purchases under $50 and nobody ever looks anyway!
xyz123 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 11:08 AM
  #15  
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 204
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
We went to some trouble to get a pin and chip card from Andrews Federal Credit Union a couple of years ago prior to a trip to Scandinavia. In most places, we could have gotten away without it, except for two transactions buying bus tickets at the Bergen airport into town (unmanned machine) and buying train tickets to the airport in Oslo (unmanned machine). Everywhere else we could sign instead of use the pin #. Bottom line, it was nice to have the option. I'm not sure if we could have found another outlet to get those sets of tickets that would have accepted our other CCs, but we didn't have to hassle it.
mocha_dolce is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 11:16 AM
  #16  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 17,932
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
It may be the agreement in the US, but MC and Visa have different agreements in each country.
I can quite see why NS, and other places refuse to accept non PIN payments.
It is only the US which decided on signature rather than PIN - they decided Americans couldn't manage to remember a four figure number. The signature is hardly a security device since I know people who have been victims of fraud where a card was presented and a signature given which wasn't even the name on the card. Some lost their fraud claims on it too!
hetismij2 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 11:16 AM
  #17  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 72,635
Likes: 0
Received 50 Likes on 7 Posts
xyz: >>Isn't that what I said
janisj is online now  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 11:44 AM
  #18  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 5,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
hetismij2...Several things. Although it is probably the largest one in terms of cardholders, the USA is not the only country which uses chip and signature. Singapore is one example. For a long time, Italy was predominantly chip and signature.

Also the merchant agreements of mc/visa are worldwide although I am not familiar with individual laws and it is possible the Netherlands has a law prohibiting mc and visa from enforcing their regulations regarding use of pins. (I assume NS is government owned?)

As far as why the US banks have gone in the direction they have, one would suspect the bottom line is it would cost them and the merchants much more to establish a pin preferred system than the losses due to fraud by lost or stolen cards which is really the only time the distinction between chip and signature as opposed to chip and pin comes into play. All the other stated reasons are probably nonsensical. But here in the USA, many merchants have still not sprung for the equipment to process emv chipped cards. There are still many merchants who swipe. Also the restaurant industry here has a great deal of problems with pins. The restaurants don't want to spring for the portable wireless terminals and it is considered cheap for restaurants not to have the waiters go into a backroom to process credit card rather than having a cashier at the counter. Our whole restaurant business revolves around tipping which does present problems with paying for a restaurant meal. Not defending anything, mind you, but that's the way it is. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
xyz123 is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 01:06 PM
  #19  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 566
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I was pleased to read xyz(zed not zee) agreeing with my opinions on the American lethargy in not changing to metric or not introducing $1 and $2 coins. You could also add free health care to,that list!!
almcd is offline  
Old Apr 17th, 2017, 01:48 PM
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,944
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thank you plantamama for the information on the Barclay's MasterCard. I wasn't aware those of us in the US could get a chip and PIN card except through a credit union.
sharona is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -