Credit cards these days

I have made several trips to Europe, pre COVID, and have had no problems with my Chip and Signature card. The only places you may/will experience difficulties is with stand alone kiosks, French toll roads, and some unattended gas stations. I have never had a problem it there was a person to give the credit card to.

CONTACTLESS!!!!!!

Tap to pay is way better/faster/easier than inserting the card for the chip (with pin or signature)!

While the tech was already widespread in Europe, Covid prompted another wave of merchants adopting it. It's now fairly common on US cards—look for a sideways wifi symbol on your card, and if missing, maybe ask you back if new-issue cards offer it. (I replaced a card well before its expiration for the upgrade.) Or, even easier, load your card into your phone's wallet app, and use the phone's contactless feature to go "cardless".

It's not apparent that the US and European contactless systems coordinate. Everytime I tried to use my contactless Amex, it wouldn't read. I had to insert the chip. A French merchant told me they aren't compatible. This was this year during the pandemic.

I'll ask Andrews for a new card, if the Visa is contactless, before returning and see if the US Visa card works contactless.

Bets, that is simply not the case. You may have experienced some unknown hiccup, common across all sorts of technology, for which a merchant made up an excuse. But the systems are not just fundamentally compatible—they are the same system.

Or maybe the feature has to be activated on your Amex? I've used all Visa, Mastercard, and my Amex, across Europe in 2019 and early 2020, all without any issue.

Interesting that contactless, scan-to-pay might work, and if it’s universally accepted as the best (safest?) method. For some time, the argument has been that a P.I.N. assured the cardholder was the account holder, and it was a legitimate purchase, and that the U.S. system was outdated and inferior. Signatures were supposed to indicate that the person with the card was the rightful customer, and that was the method when credit cards began.

Now, with scan-to-pay, possession is 10/10’s of the law. If you’re holding the card, it’s yours to use. All the more reason to keep that card secure, with a moneybelt or whatever means. And if the card disappears while you’re traveling, don’t waste a moment to report that to your card issuer.

For awhile when we went contactless here, my Amex wouldn't work in places like the grocery store, while my MC and VISA would. At some point, they updated the card readers or did something to the system at some point and I no longer have that issue. Inserting the chip/pin would work. But if I showed the cashier an Amex they'd always say you have to insert.

An addition to the topic of contactless I'd forgotten to mention-

Here in the states, there appears to be no (or a very high) limit to the value of a contactless transaction. In Europe, there are limits—20 or 25 euro prior to Covid, and I understand they've gone up, approximately double. Above the limit, and you will have to insert the chip and either enter a pin or sign for it.

it's pretty arbitrary here in the States it seems, some places offer contactless others don't, sometimes the card works sometimes it doesn't.

The signature requirement was also loosened recently, apparently.

And what about Apple pay? Does that work in Europe?

it's pretty arbitrary here in the States it seems, some places offer
contactless others don't

Here in the East Coast it has near 100% acceptance from merchants big and small.
In most countries in Western Europe that’s been the case for a while. Same deal wit Apple/Android Pay.
,

And what about Apple pay? Does that work in Europe?

Apple Pay is the same technology as contactless tap, so should work fine. (I find apple pay to be a bit cumbersome with faceID, especially when wearing a mask. So while it was my entry to contactless payment on my old phone, I'd drifted to using the actual cards again, but with tapping rather than inserting.

Took me years to get chip cards that would work in the blessed train ticket machines over there.
Bring a few cards. That ticket machine at the gare will want to play credit card roulette about 10 minutes before your trains leaves.

That was a well-known problem with 'chip & signature' cards on the 'chip & pin' system. I haven't had those problems since transitioning to contactless.

And what about Apple pay? Does that work in Europe?

yup

Thanks, y'all.

Always bring several cards, yes. A mix of MC and Visa from different banks. It can get pretty random sometimes, years ago at CDG a cabbie claimed his reader wouldn't accept one of my cards but it took the other. Oh well, it's only money.

Speaking of cabs, I had an argument in my high school French with a cabbie on the Ile St. Louis over the amount of the tip, my offer was reasonable (actually probably generous since it was from an American) but he didn't agree. I let him win.

The contactless card worked as well as my Oyster card on the Tube with no need to ever top up. Hope that still holds true for whenever we next get to London.

Hi folks-
I am an American living in England and I pay for everything with ApplePay. Get it on your phone before you come here and you'll be set. Note that now (at least in the UK) you will find many businesses that only take payment via contactless (card or phone). So spend the 5 minutes to get it set up on your phone and you'll be fine. Don't bring wads of cash with you because there are many places that won't take it. Contactless is king right now!

I have a question...Why have credit cards from different banks? I use BAC Travel Rewards as my primary CC. In the past I used TDBank CC as a back-up and may again only if all others fail. But I want to change to a second BAC Travel Rewards card as secondary because of contactless. My idea is to use the primary card for large purchases. The secondary card will be for small daily contactless purchases. I just called BAC and was told that each card is a separate account and what affects one will not affect the other, so I don't understand why two different banks.

Second question that I just thought of for Apple Pay users, only semi-related to the above: Are there additional fees for using Apple Pay? Say I link the second BAC TR card to Apple Pay. As a CC the BAC TR has no account/foreign transaction fees.

As always, thanks.

I jumped through the hoops to get a State Department credit card for its Chip and PIN capabilities a few years ago. When we traveled to Denmark (in the before times) we really needed it for things that just could not be purchased without it. ie local train tickets, Trivoli gardens ride tickets to name some examples. Now reading this, I am somewhat confused. Has contactless replaced the need for Chip and Pin cards? I understand at restaurants that a contactless CC would work, (Heck you could get by with a signature credit card in that example), but what about ticket machines in their various forms?

I've been using Apple Pay internationally for years, long before US credit card issuers starts issuing contactless cards.

I have a couple of them in my wallet but I don't pull them out if I can avoid it.

Instead, I use my Apple Watch, which works fine when you're masked and your iPhone can't authenticate via FaceID.

So don't even have to pull out my iPhone.

In France currently. A few places won't take Amex so I switch to a Visa on my Apple Watch.

I went to this small supermarket in Nice and it wouldn't take Apple Pay nor the physical cards in the chip slot.

Otherwise, most places have taken Amex. Paid my Paris hotel bill, which was several hundred Euros, without having to authenticate with FaceID nor having to sign a receipt.

So if there's a limit for contactless transactions, it's pretty high.

Often when my chip and pin card doesn't work my debit card does - like the toll roads in France and Italy in particular. But this thread has convinced me to check into Apple pay for ease!!!

Yet just to muddy the waters ... when you read about travel in Germany, everyone consistently says carry more cash than you normally would because not everywhere takes credit. Which is exactly backwards to what I would expect in 2021.

Phred - every country in Europe is different when it comes to cash vs. card, and how much contactless is used. Germany has resisted the lure of paying with plastic for many years, and apparently the pandemic has only made a bit of dent in this. But, Scandinavian countries are ahead of even the US in card payment use. In the UK, everyone pays for everything they can with contactless ( I really felt like the odd man out since I didn't have it yet). Apparently, in some other countries it's often accepted, but not as ubiquitous. And I expect the pandemic has changed things. I know some of my stores here have signs saying that they now prefer contactless payment.

Even in the US, there's lots of variation, so I'll repeat my favorite examples. At one of my supermarkets, the limit for contactless with no signing is very high if it even exists; I once bought over $140 worth, and only had to tap with no signing. At my other supermarket, I have to tap and then sign, no matter how low the amount (as if I had used the chip - no difference, except tapping is faster). My dentist has the wildest machine I've seen; I have to swipe the card, then insert the chip, then sign, or I can now tap and sign (these have been large amounts, so I don't know if I could tap without signing for smaller ones).

More and more places in New York City are getting contactless payment, if they didn't have it already. One Potbelly Sandwich Shop I go to just go it two weeks ago; before that, they had to swipe my card, as their readers didn't even take chips! And New York City Transit (buses and subways) all now take contactless payment, but they only do single fares with transfers; if you want a weekly or monthly pass, you still have to get a MetroCard for now (apparently this will change in time).

February 2019, just before the global lock down, I was in Berlin for a week. Used plastic for 99% of all my purchases. The only time I used cash was for the taxi to/from the airport and at the bratwurst stand at Potzsdamer Platz.

I just got very used to using cards for everything here in the States last year, I have currency that's been sitting in my pocket for 15 months.