Using a Credit Card Without Raised Numbers

Many European-issued credit cards do not have raised numbers either, so I don't see how this will be a problem.

Great! Every once in awhile I have a problem here with the flat card. I just wanted to order a card if I needed to.

Thanks!

Someone here did once report having a problem using a flat card in Europe, but it was awhile ago when they were pretty rare and those types of cards have become more common.

I had my card swiped with the imprint reader just last fall where I live. The machine was down and the clerk had to manually process transactions. It's happened to me a few times over the past 20 years. But even with a flat card, the clerk can just manually write down the numbers. It always amazes me that those machines are still out there.

The specific problem that was reported on this website was at a car rental in France. The rental place insisted they needed an imprint of the card, and since the card was flat and this was not possible, they were not able to rent the car. This is the thread, from 2012: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/quot-electronic-quot-credit-cards

However, this is the only report I've seen of this problem. Certainly, taking imprints of cards is no longer done for most things (card companies actively discouraged it, since it made theft of the numbers much easier). If you are renting a car, you may want to check if it will be a problem. It shouldn't be at stores, hotels, etc.

I've had one of my cards swiped through the old embossing machine exactly once in my four years living here, in a hotel in Switzerland that nobody on this website is likely to visit. Oddly enough, I couldn't use my euro-denominated credit card (no raised numbers) and I had to fall back on my US Visa.

Oh, great. So now there will be cards with raised numbers and with a magnetic strip on the back, and flat cards with a stripe, and raised-number cards with a data chip but which require a signature, then flat cards with the same, then various versions of Chip & PIN cards (flat and not flat). Things were simpler when you just needed traveler's checks -- wait, no they weren't. :-)