European Credit Cards

You probably can't, as yu have no European credit to refer to. I know that when people come to the US, they must reestablish credit, as there information from Europe does not follow them. US credit bureaus are reported on only in the US and do not transfer, which is the case in Europe.

Be very sure to alert your card companies before travel or they will freeze the card--let them know where you are going and when.

I doubt if you can get a European VISA CREDIT card. If you find a bank that is willing to do that, let me know. The banks I have asked all say that you must be a resident.

However, some European banks will give you a Euro-denominated DEBIT card if you open a checking or savings account with them. I have an account with Citibank in Spain, and they gave me a VISA Electron debit card. I have used it to charge hotel bills and restaurants, and online purchases such as concert and train tickets. I have not tried it with automated ticket machines, like you describe.

There are probably some other banks in Europe that will open an account for you and give you a debit card, but whether you can do that by mail from the US, I don't know. I applied in person for my account in Barcelona. All I had to do is show my passport, fill out a few forms, and give them a small deposit in Euros. However, they charge 7 Euros a month maintenance fee unless you keep at least 3,000 Euros in the account.

I forgot to mention that American Express does have a Euro credit card, and Americans can apply for it. However, it has a 100 Euro annual fee, and I have heard that AMEX is not very much accepted in Europe -- except in fancy hotels and restaurants.

Another option is to buy a prepaid MC or Visa debit card once you arrive in Europe. These cards have the smart chip embedded in them that will work in most automated machines in Europe. You can get them at most all currency exchange desks at the airport. In Holland you can also purchase them at the ticket windows at the larger train staions.

My Spanish card does not have a smart chip because Spain has not as yet converted to using smart chips in all their cards. Scheduled for 2010, I understand.

The prepaid debit cards sound like they might be a good option if you anticipate using automated machines a lot, but I have heard that they do not give a very good exchange rate and/or that there may be a charge for each purchase.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It does sound like there are sizeable costs to getting such a card. The prepaid does sound like a way to go to carry one for an unexpected situation. Hope some financial entity in the US besides American Express will eventually come up with a reasonably priced option. If American Express can do it, then it means the technology is available here.

I'm still interested where Michael is getting his figures from (not doubting just interested.)

We have RFID credit cards here in Europe too but just as in the US they are not a security feature, it's purely for convenience.

Peter,
I apologize if I offended the continent of Europe with my comments. I get my information from articles I've read through the years in retail trade magazine
My line of work involves retail IT. But since I foolishly didn't save and photocopy all those articles over the years, I will delete my post.

That's entirely your prerogative but, as I made a point to say, I wasn't questioning your facts I was just curious. I also work in IT (although not retail delivery) and am interested in this phenomenon of different fraud patterns and thought you might have some more information.

Funny enough, my European Debit Card with a smart chip is the only card I have ever had counterfeited. The smart chip may make it harder but doesn't stop it.

The chips have another purpose as well. You can store money on them (like an electronic wallet) and stores, kiosks, and (vending) machines that don't have debit card/credit card machines can still except chip cards because they do not need network connectivity.

Barclaycard in the UK do a combination chip credit card, RFID contactless card and TfL Oyster card.

Interestingly, I just remembered my last US road trip where I was frustrated by being unable to use my card to pay at the pump at gas stations. All the machines required you to enter a US zip code matching the card's billing address. Looks like the gas stations independently came up with a similar solution for card validation.

Michael I think you should read the Wikipedia article on RFIDs. This technology has been implemented in many place in Europe and the rest of the world. There are, however, some real security issues with RFIDs.

I know RFID is used around the world. I've used in my travels around the world with the Oyster Card in London, the transit card in Lison,the PASMO card in Tokyo, and the Octopus card in Honk Kong. It's great being able to use these cards at convenience stores and vending machines, to make small purchase with digging out change. But the RFID system that is in use in New York is next generation, with new security protection used nowhere else in the world.

You've tweaked my curiosity again.

I guess you mean the Blink technology? Other than being tied to one bank (Chase) I'm not sure how it really differs from other contactless protocols such as VISA payWave or Mastercard PayPass that are being rolled out in Europe.

I missed something here. What is an RFID? Perhaps it was defined in the post that Michael deleted? I only check this page every day or so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID

Thank you Michael. From reading the wiki page, I gather that it refers to the chip in many European cards which most American cards do not have.

Not quite. The technology relies on a chip, but it's used in a different way. The current smart chips in most European credit cards still require that the card be inserted into a machine to be read. The new RFID chips are "read" via radio waves so you never have to take you card out of your purse or wallet. Similar to the way EZPASS works in New York. The next generation smart chips rely on RFID. It's already being rolled out in New York City, and some other places.

Thanks Michael!