credit cards

It seems like this topic gets posted here at least once a week. Chip and PIN cards use an implanted chip and a 4-digit pin number for a purchase to be authorized. US cards are still using magnetic stripes and signatures. Your US card should work just fine, unless you run into an automated ticket machine or gas pump. Even so, in most cases there should be a human teller available to swipe your card and have you sign for it. You can also call your credit card company and ask to have a PIN number issued in case you are asked for one.

Jerry, to clarify the situation, your credit cards should be accepted at staffed ticket offices, hotels and most restaurants. However, you may have problems with automated ticket machines such as those at Paris / CDG as those will ONLY accept "chip & PIN" credit cards (and Euro cash as I recall). It's important to note that having a PIN attached to a magnetic stripe credit card will likely NOT work with those particular ticket machines, as they ONLY read the chip. To some extent, the use of older magnetic stripe cards will vary depending on which country you're in. I found that at least some of the ticket machines at Roma Termini WOULD operate with older magnetic stripe credit cards. I do have a "chip & PIN" credit card but the machines at Termini only read the magnetic stripe, and didn't ask for a PIN. Happy travels!

We ran into some trouble with the chip and pin card issue during our recent trip in the Baltics. It seems that experienced cashiers have no trouble, they just process it as "no pin" and it spits out a slip for you to sign. Others weren't used to the idea and told us we couldn't use our cards. We tried to order a pin before we left but didn't get it in time so I can't say whether a pin will work without the chip or not (I'm guessing it will - just like using a debit card).

I try to pay for everything with cash, which I get from ATMs, and I have never had trouble using my card at bank ATMs in Germany. On my last trip (Germany/Austria) I only had to use my credit card once, at a Bahn ticket automat, and it took it no problem.

The fact is, there is no universal credit card, or ATM debit card, that can be guaranteed to work everywhere, and this includes European "chip and pin" cards. There have been complaints on this board in the past from people in different European countries who have "chip and pin" cards that they said didn't work in some European countries. The best strategy, as has been said here many times before, is to take several debit and credit cards with you. Don't rely on just one card. It may not work when you most need it, for reasons unknown.

TYLER, "There have been complaints on this board in the past from people in different European countries who have "chip and pin" cards that they said didn't work in some European countries". I suspect the reason for the problems reported so far, is the fact that "chip & PIN" techonology is still in the "roll-out" phase in some countries and there are still a few "bugs" to work out. As the problems are corrected, I doubt there will be as many problems. The last time I used the ticket machines at CDG, the first machine I tried wouldn't work at all with my "chip & PIN" VISA card. I decided to try the next machine and it worked fine. I have no idea why the first machine didn't work, as other people had used it before me? Cheers!