Hi, I will be travelling to Greece in October, I am bringing my Singapore Citibank's debit card with me. We have a new service where I can convert my local money into Euro in my account in advance and draw Euro from a Citibank ATM in any European countries without a charge. The problem is, in my country, all the bank debit or credit cards have 6 digits PIN whereas, I was told there are only 4 digits in Greece. Is that true?, I am not sure if the ATM will accept my 6 digits card. Can any one advise on this? Thanks a lot.
Posted by
Washington DC
27122 posts
I don't know about the PIN, but I wouldn't like the idea of converting funds in advance. I'll bet the bank isn't going to use the official exchange rate for that conversion. It will be doubly costly if you convert too much money and need to reconvert what is left over after you return home.
I'd ask some more questions:
What comversion rate will be used if you pre-convert today? Then compare that to yesterday's closing rate, found online.
if you don't pre-convert and simply use your debit card in an overseas machine today, what fee will be charged and what conversion rate will be used? Compare to yesterday's rate.
Call the issuer(s) of your credit card(s) and ask about fees for overseas use and today's comversion rate. Again, comlare,to,the online rate.
Now you have the information you need to decide the best way to handle paying for things during your trip.
If you are ever asked whether you want a transaction (credit card or debit card) recorded in your home currency, you do not want to do that. That allows the merchant or local bank to choose the conversion rate it wants to use, and that will not be good for you.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you for the advise on pre conversion of foreign currencies. The banks shows up to date's foreign exhange market rates so we can buy on the spot or set a rate of our preference, if the rate matches they will then automactically convert to the forenign currency account to make available for overseas withdrawl or online transactions. We can choose an exact amount we want to bank in the account. In that case we won't need to convert back to local currency and incurs lost. It sounds very attractive with this new service, so l am tempted to try, hoping to bring less cash with me while travelling. But if drawing cash from Atm fail, then it will be disaster.
Posted by
Brighton, UK
1388 posts
My British card uses a 4 digit code both here in England and in Greece. It’s the same in every European country I’ve ever visited. I’d always assumed that it was universal.
I suppose it’s possible though that the machine recognises the card and asks for the appropriate number of numerals. Possible but I would think unlikely: the interface only shows spaces for four figures.
Alan
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you Alan, in Asia countries our atm use 6 digits it is impossible for the bank here to issue a card with 4 digits PIN. The citibank here said l can key in the 1st 4 digits to access. I hope it will works. Apprecisted your informations on Europe atm pin thanks a lot.