Leaving for Paris in 3 weeks and have a quick question on ATM cards. All of our credit cards have been replaced in the last 6 months with Chip cards, but not the ATM cards. Last trip to Europe was over a year ago, but I'm assuming that the swipe ATM cards still pose no problem in ATM machines. I'll mostly use ATMs to pay for everything, and just don't want surprised.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7026 posts
Yes, magnetic stripe cards should work just fine in ATM's.
Posted by
Seattle
287 posts
I just returned from 4 weeks in various parts of the UK and France and had no problems at any ATM anywhere. I used both chip and standard magnetic swipe cards without difficulty.
Posted by
California
1625 posts
We just returned about a month ago and I noticed that older people knew to swipe and with some younger ones I had to make the "swipe" hand motion and point to the side of the machine so they knew where to put my card. I used my chip (NO PIN) Chase sapphire card in train tickets machines, no problem.
Posted by
OP
Monterey County, CA (formerly Verbania Italy-Lago Maggiore)
1626 posts
thanks for the responses.
Posted by
4518 posts
I haven't seen an ATM that takes chips in Europe, does this even exist?
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
You may find this thread interesting.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7343 posts
Hi Karen - you may have done this already, but be sure to notify your bank (both the CC issuer and the ATM card issuer) that you're traveling to France, with you departure and return dates. That will ensure they don't reject a transaction thinking that someone else is trying to use your cards overseas. The ATM-card bank should be able to answer any questions and reassure you that their card will work. We have the same situation, chip CC's and stripe ATM card, and both are working fine right now in Nice, France.
Hi Tom_MN - it appears that ATM's now take either type of card, and process accordingly. Chip cards would go into the ATM slot chip-first.