CaliforniaTraveler

On my recent trip to France my Arrival+ card worked just as promised. In stores and restaurants the card prompted for a signature. At an unattended pay point it worked with the pin number I'd selected. It was accepted as several unattended gas stations and in a Bordeaux parking structure.

I followed Barclay's instruction to activate the card by first using it at an establishment were the merchant could accept a signature card. This presented no problem as every place I used the card (and some places were remote villages) the merchant was equipped to deal with this.

It is impossible to know what might have caused problems in Italy but the Barclay Arrival+ card was, for me, a fully functioning chip and pin card. I also enjoyed getting a healthy rebate on the cost of my flight to France.

sunnymonkey

I too have not had an issue using my Arrival+ card on 2 trips to Europe this year which included Italy, France, Spain and Austria. I don't think I even think my first purchase was a signature one which some people say is required (though I did use it in the US as a swipe card prior to the trip). Was able to use at unattended kiosks (e.g train/public transportation, gas stations) numerous times. At restaurants and hotels (and thus attended POS), it always spit out the receipt which we had to sign. When I had called Barclays to see if I could request it to default to PIN, they said no - signature is the preferred method and they could not change that for individual accounts. Silly, I think, for going 75% of the way but at least better than most issuers who only went 50% with the Chip & Signature (no PIN option). Hope this helps people who are on the fence about using it.

mlgb

Since Barcalycard just devalued the awards program, I cancelled the card.

I upgraded my no annual fee Capital One card to Quicksilver, cash back on everything, with no minimum spend.

sasham5

Adding my most recent experience to the chorus: THIS CARD IS USELESS as a PIN card for unattended kiosks!

Not just in Italy - everywhere I tried in Portugal, Spain and Italy. As others reported, I did exactly as instructed: selected a new PIN when activating my new card and used it in a chip & signature terminal prior to trying it in an unattended kiosk.

After calling Barclays customer care to complain about the card not working as a PIN card in kiosks, I was told that everything is fine with my PIN and account, and they see no attempted transactions. In other words, the unattended terminals did not even go as far as contact the bank to attempt to post a transaction after I entered my PIN.

None of attended terminals defaulted to PIN, always printing for signature instead.

Card is totally useless for one thing I had hoped to use it for.