Credit Card PIN codes needed for purchases?

The only reason to have a PIN is that it may be required to make purchases from unattended machines, like train ticket machines, gas pumps at unattended gas stations, toll booths on the Autostrada. The rest of the time when there is a person present for a transaction, like stores, hotels, and restaurants, their machine will spit out a slip that you sign. Europeans, who have cards that are PIN only, will have to enter their PIN in the machine to complete the transaction. US credit cards are all signature, or PIN if no human present. Even then, for smaller transactions, it will often go through if you just hit "continue" when asked for a PIN.

And if a PIN is insisted on with no way to bypass it, you can enter either 4 random digits or the last 4 digits of the card number or the card expiry date. There have been people who reported these options work, but no guarantee on this unless you get the real PIN. But as mentioned, you most likely will never be asked for a PIN on purchases.

Most merchants are aware of the signature process for American credit cardholders, but there's the rare occasion -- especially with an extra-young or inexperienced waiter/waitress/salesperson -- when they don't know of anything other than the "normal" European PIN process. We sometimes mention, when we present our card (or insert our Chip-enabled card into the credit card machine, when it's presented) that it's American, or that we need to do a signature, or make a "signing" motion with our hand. Invariably, they just print out the second receipt for us to sign, but never check to see if our signature matches the one on the back of the credit card.

Amount of the transaction doesn't matter, and as long as a human was present to process the transaction, we've never been refused, even though we don't have or use a PIN with our Chip cards, but we've occasionally been delayed by just a few seconds while the server figured out what to do, since we needed to sign instead of entering a PIN. At unattended gas pumps in Italy, we were out of luck, and couldn't get gas. In Scotland, we had to go inside to pay, since the card reader at the pump wouldn't process our payment.

And, hopefully, your credit card has a chip rather than merely a slide strip. Chip enhanced credit cards are standard in Europe. Also, a nice European touch.....the merchant will transact your purchase in your presence.....your credit card (theoretically) will never leave your sight.

We just got back yesterday from a trip that included Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. We have a BofA credit card and we're able to set a PIN online through our account, no problem. ( But maybe you have a different type of card that has different terms and conditions).

We only needed the PIN once, to buy S-Bahn tickets at Munich Airport. At subsequent ticket machines (CAT train in Vienna, etc.) the machine accepted the card without a PIN.

All other machines, whether hand-held devices used by waiters, or the tabletop kind found at merchants, grocery stores, and hotels, would automatically spit out a receipt for us to sign. This was our experience last year in England and France as well, and the year before in Italy.

Apparently the European machines, at least in the countries we have visited, now recognize an American chip,card and produce the paper for signature.

Thank you all so much for your replies. What a wonderful group of folks!

There seem to be a multitude of cards offered by any bank, but I believe with BoA, a PIN is available only as a backup (at least with the BoA Travel Rewards card), your card is still a Chip and Signature. So any transactions with people, as has been mentioned, you will sign a slip. For unmanned Kiosks, try the card, it may work with no verification if small dollar, or you can try the random 4 numbers someone mentioned. As a last resort, just look for a manned ticket counter or have cash available.

There are cards in the US with full Pin capability and even PIN Priority cards, but they are few enough at this point that it is unlikely you have one.

Most US credit cards are chip and signature only. The PIN you can get for them - which you have been able to get for years, before the cards had chips - was for expensive cash advances at ATM machines. Don't expect this PIN to work for purchases in Europe!

But, it's true that US chip and signature cards will work at many machines without a PIN. I have a couple of different cards, and one of them (with the least attractive benefits, so I rarely use it) is a true chip and PIN card. My chip and signature card, which I prefer to get airline miles, has worked at machines in various European countries with a few notable exceptions: at the ticket machines for trains in the Netherlands, I needed my chip and PIN card (my chip and signature card was rejected) and also for buying train tickets in France and Italy.

In general, a USA PIN with a revolving credit card has only one purpose - it's to make Cash Advances (with hefty charges from an ATM machine.) That particular PIN is not involved with Point of Sale purchases that appear later on your monthly statement.

As noted, in mainline European destinations, merchants are already used to having a signature slip printed out by their machine (even, by portable machines on which Europeans enter their PINs without having the card go out of their sight - a really good practice we should adopt here ... ) and which they will then present to you for a signature.

A few years ago, the Netherlands were making it hard to do that. They were really (except for hotels) enforcing Chip and PIN. It would be good to have a current report on the Netherlands.

I've never needed a PIN at restaurants that accept credit cards. I've only been prompted for a PIN at some ticket machines and grocery stores.

A PIN is a PIN is a PIN. A card, debit or credit, can have only one. There is no distinction between a PIN for purchases and a PIN for cash advances. When you ask for your PIN from a US based bank, they will tell you that it is only for cash advances sometimes even going so far as to say that every time you enter your PIN on any type of transaction that transaction will be treated as a cash advance (except for Bank of America which seems to finally get it with its travel related cards). That is totally false and misleading, but since 99.9% of most US based bank customers will never use their card outside the US it is simpler for them to say that than a statement with an "except when ..." in it. The only time a transaction is treated as a cash advance is when you use your credit card at an ATM to get cash (or a few other places like currency exchange booths resulting in you receiving physical cash from the transaction).

So if you have your PIN for your credit card and the machine asks for it when you purchase train tickets or the like, go ahead and enter it. It will most likely allow you to use your card that is normally chip and signature successfully (at least it has for me). You will never be charged for a cash advance for these types of purchases.

I just got back from Europe on Tue. At 2 hotels(Romania, and Germany), our AMEX chip and signature credit card wasn't accepted. It requested a pin, so the hotel employee said that they couldn't use a signature. They used one of those small card readers. So we just used our Visa chip and pin credit card instead.

I can't speak to the most recent trends in the Netherlands or Italy because all my cards are - and have been for many years - chip and PIN.

But I can cast a light on how things are going in England.

Up to a couple of months ago travelers presenting a swipe only card for a train ticket on the company I work for could get it swiped on the same portable machine used to issue tickets against normal chip and PIN cards. In fact if that didn't work the operator could enter the number manually.

Not any more. Now new machines are being rolled out to all the train companies and now it is completely impossible to pay with a card which is not chip equipped. There is a swipe slot built in but it is disabled. There is simply no way to manually enter the card number.

Or you can pay with cash.

Best advice these days is to find a way to get a chip, preferably with a proper PIN.