Hi. My wife and I will be traveling to Ireland in August and I want to make sure our American Visa card (with just a magnetic strip, no chip) will work in Ireland. I realize that chip and PIN technology is the standard in Europe and Canada and is slowly being rolled out in the US, but our bank has yet to make the switch. We just traveled in Canada with no problem but their machines take both. Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
I have never had any problems with my mag stripe cards, debit or credit.
Posted by
Anaheim, CA, USA
1455 posts
No problem when I was in Dublin and recently in Germany. You may have a problem at self serve kiosks, or gas stations. Fortunately there was an attendant at the gas station.
Citibank, Wells Fargo and AMEX switched, so it is coming.
Posted by
15 posts
your in luck, Visa is accepted at every place in Ireland I ever needed a credit card for.
USA is so far behind on the whole chip/pin thing its insane. All my credit cards have Chips in them, but the bank refuses to issue a Pin so in essence its useless. Just sign the credit card receipt and you want have any issues.
I always paid petrol with euros, I would always fill up when I hit a half a tank. At most it would be 20-30 euros so it was just easier to drop a 20 instead of waiting on the credit card machine