Credit card chips

You could and it might be helpful but I have not found it necessary. Read the fine print at least twice and with a magnifying glass. Prepaid debit tend to be expensive with buried fees.

michael, Many of the group here on the HelpLine have been successful in obtaining a "Chip & PIN" card at the Andrews Federal Credit Union in Maryland. Have a look at this Thread for further information: www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=83998 While you likely wouldn't have any problems using an older magnetic stripe card, I've found that it's really helpful at times to have a "Chip & PIN" card. Happy travels!

Ken, I'm just curious, what do you use the chip and pinn card for? We don't drive in Europe. We use a debit card tied to our credit union bank account. As a back up we put several hundred dollars in a AAATravel Money debit account. Its about as cheap as any for emergency money.

We have always used Travelex debit (chip and pin included) cards. We just bought two, plus some currency in Euros and British pounds. You can buy the cards at a Travelex store or on-line.

I looked into Travelex before going to France and realized that their fees/exchange rate made it a horrible deal. So instead I got an Andrews Credit Union chip and PIN card. It was useful to have for unattended gas stations and train station machines. Otherwise, a regular strip card works about 99% of the time.

I've personally never had a problem using my magnetic strip card at any ATM anywhere in Europe, but I did have a problem in Ontario a few months back. I can't recall if it was in Hamilton, Burlington, or somewhere else near there, but the machine I tried using accepted only chip & PIN cards (there was sinagae to this effect, but I thought I could use my card anyway...nope). I use my card all over Canada and have never had a problem before, so I'm not sure if this is something new that's going to be rolling out across the country or what. I suppose it may be possible for a similar thing in Europe for debit cards in the future...don't really know. Obviously, there can be issues using magnetic strip cards at unattended gas stations, etc. in Europe. So, is a chip and PIN card really necessary right now...probably not...I'm not getting one anytime soon. Maybe I will in the future if/when things change for our old magnetic strip cards. I don't know why the banks here wouldn't change over...it's an extra security measure, so it sort of makes sense that they would at some point. I'm sure there's a ton of up-front cost involved, but the business case is probably there in the long run.

It's not duanting at all. Unless you will be driving lots, there just isn't a need for chip and pin. They are handy and sometimes necessary for highway tolls and un-manned gas stations. Otherwise, your good 'old fashioned credit card will work just fine. As some have noted, if you do NEED a chip and pin, you can either get the Travelex card (bad rates and fees) or the Andrews Credit Union card.

I'm not so sure what the problem would be with driving a lot. In a half-decent year, I'll clock close to ten thousand miles driving somewhere in europe. It's not like there aren't manned stations all over the place. I don't even think about tanking up until I'm well under a quarter tank and have never had a problem. Plus, look at how far you can go. A little Seat Ibiza has a twelve-gallon tank and gets fifty per. One tank will get your from Paris to well inside of Spain, or from London to way the heck past Inverness, or from anywhere in northern Italy to Salerno, or . . . . The average two-week, rent a car for a while, to drive Normandy or the Tuscan hills can't burn through a single tank of gas.

We just returned from 3 weeks in Italy and had a car most of the time. A couple of simple precautions negated any need for a chip&pin. We never allowed our fuel tank to get below 1/2 on a weekend. We always kept a supply of cash, especially coins handy in case we ran into a toll crossing with no manned booths. (This is extremely rare, but we did once experience it.) There were no problems in any other context.

@Monte, "Ken, I'm just curious, what do you use the chip and pinn card for? We don't drive in Europe." I've found that a "Chip & PIN" credit card has been VERY useful on a couple of occasions..... > Ticket Kiosks at CDG - those ONLY accept C&P cards, so it saves me the trouble of obtaining a bunch of Euro coins or the worse option of having to stand in a long queue at the ticket office (in a jet-lagged state). > Buying rail tickets in the Netherlands - when I was at Amsterdam Central last year, they had large signs on each ticket window stating that they ONLY accept C&P cards. The Netherlands seem further ahead with the conversion than some other countries in Europe, so at times C&P cards are the ONLY option. > Using rental Bikes in Paris or Milan - as I recall, these ONLY accept C&P cards. On those occasions when I have rented a car, I usually visit a staffed fuel station and use cash if possible. As the inexorable conversion to this new technology continues, I suspect that older magnetic stripe cards may at some point not be useable as the POS terminals won't have a "swipe" reader. Cheers!

As a follow-up re unmanned gas stations, I've noticed that more and more stations in France are unmanned, particularly at grocery store gas stations, which seem to constitute a majority of the available gas stations in many areas. I used to be able to count on the manned kiosks at grocery store stations being open at least during the day except for Sunday, but on our recent trip those stations were almost virtually all unmanned at all hours. The kiosks were still there, but no people. That's why I had gotten a chip and PIN before I left.

We were in France for close to two months last Fall and drove thousands of miles photographing. As Ed said the leased car we had got phenomenal mileage and we had no problems paying for gas with cash and tolls with euro coins.I can see in the future the need for a chip and pin, but we did not have any problems. We may need one in The Netherlands, but not so far.

Michael: which countries are you going to? Even in places where the locals have chip and pin cards, there is a great variation in how easy or hard it is to use swipe and sign cards. In the Netherlands, swipe cards are not accepted in MANY places (I was just there in April 2012). I just used cash, but if you want to use a credit card, get a C&P one. Also be aware that some places (particularly supermarkets) don't accept ANY kind of CC - just local debit cards with chip and pin. Thankfully, my US debit cards worked in every ATM without difficulty. For France, as mentioned, unstaffed machines often only take chip and pin. But I haven't yet seen a problem when a person was available to swipe the card. However, I've read that this is starting to change, as new credit card machines don't have a swipe slot. I don't drive, but the one place a chip and pin card would have been great is train stations. The machines in stations don't take swipe cards, so I had to wait in lines. For Italy, it seems that swipe cards are still valid in machines, and stores take them without difficulty. So, as you see, whether you'll even get to use a chip and pin card depends on where you are going, and (as said) exactly what you'll be doing.

I have been comparing the Andrews "chip and pin" card with the new Chase British Airways "chip and signature card". Here are my observations: As I see it, the Chase BA "chip and signature card" has the advantage of NO foreign transaction fee (this is NEW with this card!) but has the disadvantage of having to sign when making a transaction such as in a grocery store in the UK. In this sense the Chase BA card is not a TRUE chip and pin card. I called Chase BA customer service and they said the PIN is only used for cash advances. The Chase BA card also has the disadvantage of a high annual fee ($95) while the Andrews card has no annual fee. Also, the rewards programs are quite different. The Andrews "chip and pin" card has the advantage of not having to enter a signature when using the card in the UK so it is a TRUE "chip and pin" card but has the disadvantage of having a foreign transaction fee (about 1%). To me, there is a hassle in having to sign in the UK when the locals don't sign (they use a pin). If I am off the beaten path in the UK where the cashier doesn't see many tourists, requiring a customer to sign is sometimes a BIG event for their day; ie., they look at the signature on the piece of paper you are signing then they look at the signature on the back of the card and they play detective by comparing the signatures. One cashier at Marks and Spencer's in Dundee, Broughty Ferry, Scotland asked me to show her another card with my signature! So, I must say I am most unhappy with Chase BA's decision to make there chip card a "chip and signature" card rather than a TRUE "chip and pin" card.

True...as pointed out above in France the SNCF machines only accept chip and pin cards. It says so on the machine in both English and French. I had to stand in line to get my r/t Paris-Bayeux ticket last summer. But, in Germany as of last summer the DB machines accepted magnetic stripe US credit cards. The receipt you get for your purchased ticket indicates whether you used Mastercard or Visa. I used the cc to pay for r/t Berlin-Frankfurt an der Oder and Hamburg-Kiel. I don't have a Travel-Ex card.