topic Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe? in Credit Cards

Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Duncanrr — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:48:23 GMT

I'm planning an overseas trip and wanted to know if the fact that I lack a credit card with chip and pin would present a problem, ie hotel, car rental, restaurants, etc. It's been about 8 years since my last trip and not sure of the current state of things there.

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 03:48:03 GMT

Do you have any cards that you can request it on?

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Duncanrr — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 03:55:32 GMT

Current cards: cap1, wells Fargo, Amex zync, delta gold, Walmart discover, chase amazon, freedom and NFCU flagship visa signature.

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:12:38 GMT

Your crap1 card likely has no FTF's so that might be your go to card overseas.

My Citi card and US Bank card's are chipped, but the Freedom is not. It has RFID, but that's not helpful.

Maybe AMEX?

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/AmEx-Chip-and-Signature-October-16th-It-s-not-chip-and-PIN-but/td-p/1632270

If you can take a HP, then find one of these that can be chipped:

http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/top-credit-cards/no-foreign-transaction-fee-credit-card/

The Citi HHonors Reserve looks pretty good.

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Duncanrr — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:15:53 GMT

My NFCU is no foreign transaction fee. I just don't think they offer chip and pin. My cap1 is too low a limit to be any good.

I'm in garden to refi so no HP for me

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 04:37:38 GMT

State Department FCU offers a chip and signature credit card without foreign exchange transaction fees. SDFCU caters to Foreign Service personnel worldwide and its membership is open to everyone. APR as low as 6.99% for purchases and cash advances with rewards. Also, higher than average CD rates. Take a look it's a real deal.

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

trumpet-205 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:17:59 GMT

Lack of chip alone can pose a lot of problem traveling abroad. Even chip & signature will handle most of foreign transactions perfectly (except unmanned kiosks, which requires offline chip & PIN).

Your Delta AMEX might solve your problem, given that AMEX requires magnetic strip accpetance abroad. This will be the only card that a merchant will take it for magnetic strip (but you pay 2.7% FTF in the process).

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:56:49 GMT

Give NFCU a call and see if they can get you a chipped card. I don't think they can, but I hope I am wrong.

Re: Lack of Chip n pin problem in Europe?

mikka1 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:35:44 GMT

I would say a lot will depend on where exactly you are heading to. European countries are not consistent in a way of how they (mostly historically) treat card payments.

Based on my experience, you will probably have no issues at all in Denmark. They seem to accept whatever cards exist in the world :-) (probably that's because they are neighboored by Germany and Sweden, both of which have different currencies than in Denmark).

At the same time I found Germany to be the "worst" country in Europe in terms of credit card acceptance - they historically have a very strong networks of own card networks (I think, it's called EC-card), so you might often find that a small store takes no cards other than EC-cards.

Talking about possible issues - it seems that in France, Austria and Netherlands you'll have hard time trying to buy a train ticket using a vending machine on a station if your card is not chipped. In a lot of places you'll surprisingly find out that the small station is completely unmanned and there's no way to buy a ticket different way :-)

If you tell a little bit more about your travel plans, maybe I will be able to elaborate on this matter as I visited, I think, at least 10 European countries over last 2-3 years and used my cards extensively there all the time.