We are planning for a trip to Ireland in August 2014. What has been the experience using the traditional mag stripe cards with ATM Cards? When we traveled to Italy in 2012, we had no trouble. What is the picture in Ireland. For credit cards, is a chip and pin card a good idea.
I realize that this has been commented on in the past, but I find nothing current. Thanks.
Nothing has changed since 2012...all ATMs will accept magnetic strip debit cards, and any merchant that deals with tourists will take our old-fashioned credit cards.
We traveled in Ireland last August and had no trouble with our old fashioned ATM and credit cards. There were four of us, so we had eight different cards total.
If you try to use your card in an automated machine (for tickets, gas, etc.), then you will need to enter a PIN. Debit cards sometimes work in these cases. But this is not a common issue in Ireland, and does not apply to withdrawing cash from an ATM. See also http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money.
As others have said, mag stripes won't be a problem; however, I would encourage you to have with you two or three debit cards, not just one. We found that sometimes one card wouldn't work in a bank's atm, and another card would.
Edit: Debit cards from different accounts...
I just got back from 2 weeks in Ireland. The only places that could or would not use my mag stripe credit card were a convenience store/liquor store and one or two small, local restaurants. Every automated gas machine I used that would take credit cards accepted my American card, and I did not need a PIN, but maybe I just got lucky.
We just spent 8 days in Ireland and had no trouble anywhere using a regular swipe card. I brought my Citibank chip and sign card just in case a place absolutely required the chip, but I never needed to use it. There was one gas station where the attendant clearly didn't know what to do with our swipe card, but the manager showed him how to swipe it on their card reader. Very amusing!
All machines can take cards without a chip, just remember to tell them it's swipe credit, no chip (even if it's a US Debt Card) and you'll be fine. If they except any credit card labels (example VISA, AMEX, MasterCard, Discover) they have to take your.
