Credit Card PIN

In Most countries you just tap with your phone or Apple Watch. Set up credit cards in your Apple wallet and practice at home first - very easy. Have a great trip!

Can only speak of our experience. Our Citi Visa card works flawlessly throughout Europe, even to tap at Auto Strata toll stations, NO PIN required. On the other hand, our debit card Visa does require the PIN to withdraw currency from ATM's, which is the only time we use that card. Just about the same situation as here at home, where cash transactions are the exception.

The only time we use a PIN is when we get cash from a ATM but that’s with a bank card not a credit card (the fees are high when you use a credit card for cash). Credit cards have been mostly tap in the last couple of years.

Per the previous responses, not all credit cards are tap and pay. Does your credit card have the little symbol for internet payment? Another option is to set up your phone for Google Wallet or Apple Pay depending on if your phone is an android or Apple phone.

If you have a chip & PIN credit card, the PIN comes with the card and its use is required when making purchases.

Most US banks issue chip & signature cards. Any PIN issued with these cards is only used for cash advances at an ATM machine, something you really do not want to do.

Just last month we never needed a pin to use our Capital One or Chase visas in Paris, Lyon, or the Dordogne. Both cards can use tap to pay, and I set one up for Apple Pay, but the card alone also worked everywhere. The same was true in Provence and the Rivieria in 2019.

In my 5 trips to Paris over the years I have not had to use a PIN with purchases on my Credit Cards: USAA, First Command, or Bank of America.

I have the PIN for all credit cards with me on the trip, regardless, not that you'll need it in France.

Last summer, absolutely no need for the PIN in France or Paris when using the cc, only in Germany with the credit card on those train ticket (DB) machines that were not contactless.

My credit cards did not come with a PIN when I took them out, had to request specifically for a PIN that was of my own choice, not one assigned to me.

Interesting that no one has brought up the most common reason to need a PIN for a CC in Europe, a gas station with no attendant (at least that's what I have seen on these boards, I've never filled up outside normal hours!). I thought that would be the first response out of the gate! (HAHAHAHAHA and I saw the next post mentioning that exact situation)

We were just in Paris and then in Normandy last month. We didn't need a pin for anything; just used a regular credit card everywhere including unattended gas stations in Normandy. Though some on this forum have said otherwise about gas stations.

I am just curious - does RS still advise a PIN number? I remember him writing about that 15 or so years ago. Quick search and I didn't find it in current writings. I could well have missed something.

I am asking because I, personally, haven't had an unsolvable problem with no PIN in Europe (or Asia or Australia) for the last several years - say from 2015 or so. As I think back, I have had to use ApplePay to avoid a PIN expectation in Barcelona at a train station recently but no other difficulties post-Covid.

I - again personally - others experience may differ(!) - have not had a problem with no PIN in Paris - most recent trip last year.

Gas stations - I haven't driven in France for a number of years, but I'm wondering for those with recent experience: Can one use a debit card with PIN for the unmanned petrol stations?????

I don't know how people use credit cards without a pin. Tap and go has a limit far below that of the value of a tank of fuel.

On average we use the pin numbers on our cards twice a day.

Simon, most US credit cards are not PIN-enabled except for taking cash advances from ATMs--something no one wants to have to do. Most of our credit cards are chip-and-signature rather than chip-and PIN. Yes, we are a bit backward. If we buy something over the tap (or insert-card) limit, we are asked to sign a receipt.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Very helpful.
Should have mentioned I have a PIN for my debit card.

Don't think anyone has mentioned it, so I will. Check with the folks that issued your credit card to see if a travel alert needs to be placed on the account. Some still do and some don't. You do not want to have the credit card computers see a foreign transaction, think it's fraud, and shut down the accoutnt. When you check with them you can ask about the necessity of a PIN. Of course, you may or may not get an accurate answer.

I remember on our first RS tour 10 years ago, reading a RS recommendation of needing a pin number for our credit card. Our bank couldn't even figure out what we were talking about, and we went through all sorts of hoops to get a pin number. We never used the pin number. Clearly we don't have pin numbers with credit cards in the US. And we've never needed to use a pin number with a credit card while in Europe including last month.

Since we in the US have pin numbers with our debit card, if desperate, wouldn't that work? Nobody wants to use a pin with a credit card because essentially it's treated as a cash advance here, so all the fees would be ridiculous. (of course there would be fees using the debit card too, but not like cash advance fees.) We just used our debit card at ATM's in Europe a couple of times.

Nobody wants to use a pin with a credit card because essentially it's treated as a cash advance here, so all the fees would be ridiculous.

Poster may be correct. However, I always thought it was treated as a cash advance (with ridiculous fees) only when a credit card was used to get cash at an ATM. I remember using a credit card for a restaurant bill in France several years ago when a pin was required. No extra fees at all.

I always thought it was treated as a cash advance (with ridiculous fees) only when a credit card was used to get cash at an ATM.

You are correct. If you have a chip & signature card, and your bank issues you a PIN, the only place the PIN may be used is at an ATM when making cash advances. PINs, issued to chip & signature card holders, may not be used to complete any other type of transaction. If you have a chip & signature card, asking for a PIN does not give you enhanced purchase capability.

Tocard is correct.

Most US credit cards are not issued Pins except for cash advance. They are usually chip and signature.

When I couldn't use contactless, I never had a problem with chip and signature. (Not true....years ago I was trying to buy a ticket at the Copenhagen train station and it wouldn't take my card. This was before contactless. Luckily I had a few kroner. But I'll be that's different today.

So, if your bank issues you a pin on chip and signature card, and you use the pin, the bank's computers might see it as a cash advance rather than a simple payment and charge you interest.

It's amazing how many errors we keep finding in RS's guidebooks.