Chip and PIN in Europe

audreyh1 said:
AFAIK my Bank of America Travel Rewards card defaults to PIN just fine in an unattended sales terminal type situation. But a lot of US issued credit cards don’t do that properly. There was a web site where you could see the coding sequence for various cards.
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Would this be the no-fee BOA travel card ?
 
YB88 said:
I wish I had known this a few weeks ago --- I got the (no annual fee version of the) AARP travel mastercard from Barclay's for just this purpose, to have a true chip & pin card for an upcoming trip. I'll give it a go anyway now that I have it, but ... rats.
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I have the Barclay's AARP Mastercard too. I've traveled with it once so far, and it worked sporadically. It failed to work the first time I inserted it into a train station ticket machine, but that was also the very first use on my trip. If memory serves, it did work later on for a train ticket. It always worked on the contactless Metro turnstiles, but those charges were really small, maybe $0.50? Mind you, I'm really glad that it worked because they had totally done away with staffed ticket windows. I will say that I had a different Barclay's travel card with an annual fee before switching to the AARP card, and my old card worked really well as a PIN priority card, so maybe there's hope for our AARP cards :)

For my upcoming trip in May, I decided to upgrade my Citibank card to a Premier account that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees. The annual cost is the same as what I was paying for my old Barclay's card, but at least now I will have two CC that don't charge transaction fees. I requested my PIN for the Citibank card, but I'm pretty sure it's an "ATM" PIN. I plan to give it a go when I get over there to see how it behaves. As always, I will take my credit union ATM card and enough Benjamins to see me through in case I run into problems with my credit cards.
 
Librarian said:
PIN on my Capital One isn't PIN Priority so would not work if they requested a PIN.

BUT it is contactless--so that will work?
Click to expand...

Yes, a contactless card will work, regardless if it's a chip and pin or chip and signature, at a terminal/kiosk if it takes contactless NFC payments (i.e. has that tap to pay reader).
 
Librarian said:
PIN on my Capital One isn't PIN Priority so would not work if they requested a PIN.

BUT it is contactless--so that will work?

I am in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Ireland, UK & Norway next month.
I plan to load 2 cards into my Wallet as well as carry them on me.
I will also have a debit card for a checking account specifically for the trip to withdraw a small bit of cash at bank ATMs in each country.

Seem like I'm covered?
Click to expand...


What is likely to happen is if you go to restaurants, you should try to use contactless mode. Otherwise you can insert the card into their reader but it may print out a receipt that needs to be signed. You may have to show ID so they can compare signatures.

They have been putting a lot of contactless terminals but I’ve seen some old gas stations and highway toll booths which are still not contactless and your ChIP card may be rejected at some of these unattended kiosks because it’s not CHIP priority.

So at gas stations, I go pay inside where they have contactless terminal instead of using a kiosk.

But many gas stations are unattended 24/7.
 
In Portugal right now, ApplePay, contactless credit card and ATM all working well, in shops, airport, metro. Have not tried unattended gas,
 
First dinner at a very local place & they did a chip insert & nothing else in Madrid...
 
yakers said:
In Portugal right now, ApplePay, contactless credit card and ATM all working well, in shops, airport, metro. Have not tried unattended gas,
Click to expand...

I have not used Google pay through my phone much but have decided to start doing go to get used to it. It seems like google pay and contactless might be my best options. I do use contactless already.
 
Just returned from a week in Ireland. Chip insert in stores and restaurants was fine, no PIN need. PIN only needed, as expected, at ATM.
 
Just spent a couple of weeks in N. Ireland and Scotland, with a brief stop in Dublin. We were able to use contactless only in almost every transaction. We had to insert the card maybe twice, but still didn’t need a PIN, just a signature.
 
If you are in a situation where you need chip/pin credit card and don't have one, could you use a bank atm/debit card?
 
gutterman said:
If you are in a situation where you need chip/pin credit card and don't have one, could you use a bank atm/debit card?
Click to expand...

I could, and I have one that should work. But this will specifically be for a car rental and they typically do not like debit cards
 
I have been using my Citi World MasterCard (with chip) and have never been requested to provided a pin. I paid for the hotel room in Locarno Switzerland two days ago and when it came to checking out, I just entered the card in the reader and followed the prompts. It never asked for a PIN. You should call your credit card company and notify them of your travel plans. In my case I bought our plane tickets with the same MasterCard and the credit card company automatically knows that I will be incurring charges at the destination country.
 
Been in the Azores for a week now & no pins required except the ATM. Fidelity ATM card...
 
Returned from Spain. Mostly used Apple Pay and had very little reasons to draw money, though I took the bus so you needed cash for them.

EVen taxis took credit cards when Uber wasn't available in certain towns.

A lot of the terminals try to get you to do DCC but most of the time, the wait persons and store employees don't try to sell you on taking the inflated dollar conversion so all the transactions are in Euros.

OK, as I noted earlier, I just went to gas stations where I could go inside and pay with Apple Pay, rather than try to use the kiosks at the pumps.

But I tried a couple of ATMs and several of them had contactless readers. So when I tapped my Schwab debit ATM card, it came up with a screen to do a withdrawal, without inputting the PIN.

But it wanted €7 fee and I only wanted to withdraw like €40. Schwab would probably reimburse the fees but I decided not to do it, again, not much need for cash, though I figure I could use it on other trips I have planned later this year.

So I don't know, if I continued with the transaction, maybe I would have needed to provide a PIN, even though in general contactless credit card transactions don't require PIN.

It would be cool though if I could do contactless at ATMs, which are often where there are skimmers and mag strip cloners.
 
explanade said:
Returned from Spain. Mostly used Apple Pay and had very little reasons to draw money, though I took the bus so you needed cash for them.

EVen taxis took credit cards when Uber wasn't available in certain towns.

A lot of the terminals try to get you to do DCC but most of the time, the wait persons and store employees don't try to sell you on taking the inflated dollar conversion so all the transactions are in Euros.

OK, as I noted earlier, I just went to gas stations where I could go inside and pay with Apple Pay, rather than try to use the kiosks at the pumps.

But I tried a couple of ATMs and several of them had contactless readers. So when I tapped my Schwab debit ATM card, it came up with a screen to do a withdrawal, without inputting the PIN.

But it wanted €7 fee and I only wanted to withdraw like €40. Schwab would probably reimburse the fees but I decided not to do it, again, not much need for cash, though I figure I could use it on other trips I have planned later this year.

So I don't know, if I continued with the transaction, maybe I would have needed to provide a PIN, even though in general contactless credit card transactions don't require PIN.

It would be cool though if I could do contactless at ATMs, which are often where there are skimmers and mag strip cloners.
Click to expand...

Pre-covid, when we were in Barcelona, we bought a bus pass good for many rides and could be shared at a smoke shop store. We bought it with our CC.
 
Not one pin in 2+ weeks in 4 different cities and 2 countries. One time they asked me to pay $1.44 on CC for a beer instead of cash (limited change, likely).

Only one pub in Grenada was cash only, but we knew prior to the visit. Poe pub is a cool place if you are ever in Grenada Spain...
 
I have chip and pin for AMEX and for my cc from my credit union.
1. The AMEX card just works. Period. Especially for the big ticket items like hotels and rental cards and larger restaurants. This was my first card ever when I graduated college and though I have no emotional attachment, this feature is the only reason I still hang on to it even after 40 years of international travel for work.
2. Despite having a chip and pin enabled for my Visa Card and despite doing all of the things required to notify my cc company when and where I'm traveling overseas, I have less than 50% success with "card declined" happening way too often. Net result is that I end up having to grab money from a local ATM as a backup.

YMMV.
cheers
 
Just returned from two weeks in Israel and Jordan. All contactless readers with no PIN. I ALWAYS asked to be charged in shekels and dinar and got the correct conversion rate (it was amusing to hear the quoted dollar amount -- usually 15-20% higher). One restaurant only took dollars cash from our group (they complained about poor internet service).
 
Just used my ApplePay to get tickets for the train from Madrid to Barcelona and right now as I am traveling on the bullet train to get lunch
 
yakers said:
Just used my ApplePay to get tickets for the train from Madrid to Barcelona and right now as I am traveling on the bullet train to get lunch
Click to expand...

You're going from Madrid to Barcelona to get lunch or you're having lunch on the train?

:cool:
 
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