Penfed vs State Department CU EMV Credit Cards

[Anonymous]

I'm traveling to Europe (primarily France) and am thinking of getting a cc with EMV.  I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa, which would've been the ideal card if they added the chip to it eventually. 

My day to day cards are the CSP visa and Chase Freedom, since I transfer points for airline miles.  I'm not getting an EMV card for the purpose of points, but it's a nice to have.   I've narrowed it down to Penfed (I have a car loan with them) and SDFCU (I will need to open a new account).  The 6.99% APR on the SDFCU CC sounds good, though I'm not sure I will use it - again a nice to have in the rare case I want to transfer balances.

What is your experience of using either of the EMV cards in Europe (especially France)?  I am hearing that both default to Chip and Signature - is that correct?  Any advantage of one over the other?

[Anonymous]

I believe that, chip wise, they are identical, basically supported by the same underlying vendor.   So both default to chip&sig, and MAY, in some situations, ask for a PIN when unattended.

83 pages of discussion at: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-programs/1304271-usa-emv-cards-available-today-chip-pin-c... includes discussion of the current solutions, Penfed, State Dep, Andrews (which has/had a FTF)

I used the Penfed one in the UK, not a great fan of the default to chip&sig, so often used my UK PIN card for speed of checkout.

[webhopper]

USAA offers Chip and PIN...

I don't know if you are affiliated with them are not, but it seems to be a good offer.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I hadn't considered that since there was a foreign transaction fee. But from the forums on flyertalk, it looks like that may be one of the few that does go to Chip and PIN instead of signature.  1% foreign transaction fee isn't too bad since I will only use it if there was no other option (unmanned kiosks).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link to flyertalk. Really lengthy thread there - very useful.  I'm going to consider USAA as well.  

[Anonymous]

Yes, in that thread USAA was confirmed (tried in Iceland) as defaulting to chip and pin, so that is good.   But then you need to weigh the FTF vs any convenience gain.

I'm also not sure if anyone can get the card, as USAA has full member/partial member stuff....