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Traditional ATM Card In Italy Not Accepted

Posted by (Bay Area, California) on

I am in Italy now with a “traditional” ATM card from my credit union that I have used on many trips without issue, including to Italy 5 years ago and most recently last month in London. It is not one of those debit cards that can also be used at other vendors to pay for purchases. It can only be used to withdraw or deposit to my bank account so it does not have the Visa or MasterCard symbol. It is in the Cirrus and Plus network.

I have been unable to use it at any bank owned machine in two different cities so far. I get a “service not available” message. I have called my credit union and they have been unable to help. From their end the card is active and ok to use. They did say that it is up to each bank to decide what kinds of cards to accept. I assume that in the past 5 years Italy bank machines have moved to only accepting the more common atm cards with the MC and Visa debit feature. My husband has one of these from our same credit union and has no issues getting cash so we are relying on his card for cash. A bit stressful as we have several day tours that are cash only!

I share this info in case there are people who have one of these atm-only cards like me although i am likely one of the few!

Wendy

Posted by
7891 posts

Glad you two at least can still get cash. Maybe there’s simply a glitch, scratch, or some other physical defect that has somehow happened to your card? It will be interesting to see if it works when you get home.

Are you limited to how much cash your husband’s card can withdraw each day? Hope it all works out!

Posted by
52 posts

@cyn, thank you. Nothing seems to be defective physically with the card. My husband can withdraw up to $500 a day so we are ok. Just trying to make sure we have enough for cash-heavy days such as our Capri tour. Sometimes we assume we can use credit cards at heavily touristed places and are surprised, a recent example being the Vittorio Emmanuelle monument (elevator to the view) in Rome. Cash only. And of course many gelato shops are as wrll which are must haves for my kids!

Wendy

Posted by
5687 posts

I have a credit union account that I use specifically for travel. I had one of their ATM-only cards for years and used it many times in Europe, but last year they sent out a notice saying they were phasing these cards out immediately. I needed to open a checking account with them so I could get an actual debit card. I think the idea was that the old ATM-only card did not have a chip in it, and at some point ATMs were going to require them. Didn't think that had happened yet, though.

Posted by
15777 posts

I have an ATM card from Capital One on a money market account that I use when I travel. It does not have a chip; it has the Cirrus logo. I used it this year in March in Nice and Barcelona, and in May and June in various places in Portugal. I've only used it for cash withdrawals. It has been a couple of years since I was last in Italy.

In the past, I've has the "service not available" issue on Sundays in Europe, if it's the wee hours in the US when banks typically shut down their systems for a couple of hours for weekly maintenance.

Posted by
3112 posts

It could be the card. If the card you're trying to use is the exact same one you used 5 years ago and your husband's card was issued more recently, your card may be missing a feature the ATMs now need to process a transaction. The ATM card I use when traveling was replaced by my bank a couple of years ago, and maybe there was a reason.

Posted by
20 posts

Maybe it isn't on a network that the ATM can access? I just got back from Italy and was able to use an ATM only card from Capital One multiple times at different ATMs

Posted by
7209 posts

I think the moral of this story is to just get with the times...they are a changin! I didn’t know regular old ATM cards were still being issued.

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