credit card problems in Switzerland

Do you have a PIN?

In Europe signing credit card slips has become a thing of the past. My credit cards don't even have a signature on them anymore. So you are always expected to enter a PIN, or use contactless (where you will be asked for a PIN sometimes as well).

It may well be that many places are no longer prepared/equipped to accept signatures.

Yes, I always have issues with my credit card in Switzerland, and only Switzerland. Tap and pay will often get rejected and I have to insert my card and sign a receipt.

Have you tried inserting your card? You have to insert it so the chip is facing upwards.

I usually have to sign the receipt, and I've never been asked for a pin.

And usually I am inserting the card.

Are you saying it’s getting rejected even when you insert the card? Or it’s getting rejected when you tap and pay and then you insert the card and it’s accepted that way?

You won't be asked for a PIN, since your card is not capable of having one for purchases likely, and the machine knows that. Should work for tap, up to 80 CHF, over that, you would need to insert and sign a slip. Could be that the places you had issues may not accept signature?

Other than that, it would not be unusual for an occasional decline, but several over a week sounds high.

That is precisely what I am saying. I insert the card, the usual folderol ensues, then the transaction is refused.

But not only when I insert the card. SBB wouldn’t accept it online when I tried to buy bus tickets, but accepted it later that day at a busstop ticket machine. A couple of days later, it would not accept any of our cards at a busstop machine. I spent a while at Swisscom yesterday, and an obviously very adept attendant couldn’t make it work - and he was photographing it.

And here’s another weird thing: my card is accepted sometimes. Mediamarkt took it - online, and no problem. And SBB isn’t the only one that’s variable. The Coop has taken it (though I did have to sign - which I usually have to do) ; then later it didn’t.

I have had issues with SBB, and "online" transactions are tricky for many without 3DS verification (or similar).

Also issues at unmanned machines and kiosks is common, it could also be that your card does not allow offline transactions, so unless the machine has an active connection, it just will not work.

Is anyone here in Switzerland RIGHT NOW, and having problems? Or in Switzerland right now, and NOT having problems?

As I said, I've been in Europe and in Switzerland many times - the last time, less than a year ago - and never had this problem.

With some googling, I've picked up scattered stories of credit card system outages here and there in Europe over the last few months, but nothing about Switzerland.

@kmd - Caveat: I have little experience in Switzerland, but...

To help (anyone) troubleshoot) this, it'll be useful to provide more details, so various possibilities can be eliminated.

One such possibility is something fairly obscure called "3-D Secure" which is (or was) a system used by some payment processors in Europe. You can read more about here in this old thread:

3-D Secure credit card payments - wha???.

This is a post from 6 years ago, so some things may have changed, but based on the fact that your payment is simply failing, yet your bank insists they have not declined any charges, it's worth looking at this ("3-D Secure") as a potential source of the problem - because that is exactly how it looks to you (and your bank) when 3-D Secure has short-circuited your transaction.

Short version: it's a security protocol that's fairly widespread in Europe which requires a one-time security PIN to complete the transaction. But many (most?) credit cards issued by American banks are not set up to use it, so transactions just fail with no useful feedback. It looks to the user that the payment has just failed (which we often interpret as a "decline" due to suspected fraud), but it has NOT been declined by your bank - the payment request never made it to your bank, they never saw it, rather, the payment was "short-circuited" (and dropped) by the vendor's payment processor.

This used to trip-up foreigners regularly, but seems to have diminished in recent years as some US banks have made their systems more tolerant of the protocol, but is still not widely understood by foreign consumers (and most front-line US-based bank employees) and it could be happening to you. Important: Typically it only interferes with online payments, and in-person payments at automated (unattended) systems, eg some gas stations, train ticket machines, highway toll booths, etc. With payment terminals staffed by a live human, it does not seem to be an issue, so there's a distinction to look for.

So, to the troubleshooting question: If you look back at the places where your cards failed, were they all at automated, UN-attended systems (or online purchases)? Or were some of those payment failures at a human-staffed payment location?

If the failures all were at automated terminals (or online), and the same cards have worked without issues with a human-staffed terminal, then that potentially points to the "3-D Secure" system. If the failed transactions were all at human-staffed terminals, then never mind about all this 3-D Secure stuff.

Hope that helps, good luck.

Thanks. I did stumble on the 3-D thing while googling. Your explanation does explain it a lot better than anything else I saw.

But it is happening everywhere - both at human-operated and unattended sites. And not consistently, even with an individual vendor and payment method, as I've explained.

All in all, it looks to me like something somewhere in the credit card system is going on the fritz, the way an electrical system can get wobbly or one part of your car can work SOMETIMES, defying diagnosis.

Guess I'll stock up on cash and hope for the best. I'm supposed to be here for awhile yet.

OK, good to know.

Troubleshooting highly technical things - especially things that are essentially opaque to you - is not easy (I did it professionally for years). It can take a lot of time. My only other advise is to take lots of good, detailed notes, including details that may at first seem ridiculous (eg only happens at automated terminals) - problem is, there are a LOT of potential variables, and many are hidden.

When a payment does fail, I'd want a good look at the terminal hardware (take notes!), ask if they have a new or old "version" of the software running on it - it may be as small a distinction as some terminals have received a specific software update, others may be running older software (very common with any system) - and of course front-line employees won't know anything about that or care (like, try asking the Starbucks barista what version of software their cash register is running, you'll just get a look...), so they might need to ask the manager about software updates to their systems, etc. You could spent a lifetime chasing details like that, most of which would be meaningless...until you find the smoking gun. So, keep your expectations in check.

Perhaps after you get home, write up a "trip report" about your credit card issues and post it here, so others can chime in to contribute their own data points. If it's an ongoing thing, eventually someone will figure it out. But it might take a loooong time.

For now, I'd do what you're doing: stock up on some cash, and be ready for whatever the credit card gods throw at you.

When I travel, my spouse and I probably bring a half-dozen credit cards, plus two debit cards (each), all from separate accounts. Depending on a single (or even a couple) of plastic cards for a long trip has its risks (so does having your card-filled wallet stolen, but that's a separate thread).

Good luck, safe travels, and please keep us posted.

My CapitalOne Visa worked great in January, including tap to pay things like toilets.

My CapitalOne Visa worked great in January, including tap to pay things like toilets.

Sam, I've read recently (maybe on this forum) that CapitalOne is changing their system from the Visa payment network to the Discover network. There are many comments here that Discover doesn't get accepted in so many places in Europe. You might check on what I said, see if your card is transitioning to Discover.

KMD, I don't suppose the cards you have trouble with are Discover?

As was mentioned, the payment processor may be the key. I've found that I can't order a Swiss Travel Pass from SBB online with any of my visa cards or debit cards starting early this year. Eurail system must use a different processor, so I had no problem ordering through them.

Kmd, do you mind sharing which banks your credit cards are linked to? I know some credit unions use 3rd party banks with “further credit to” for wire transfers. If they are using 3rd parties for their credit cards the merchant’s processor may not recognize it. Just a thought, I don’t have David’s knowledge and haven’t been to Switzerland.

We do have two Capitol One cards - one visa, the other a Mastercard. And a Barclays card.

Again, the results are very inconsistent even with the same card, even with the same vendor, even with the same type of terminal.

Clearly we’re all just guessing. If anyone else is actually in Switzerland right now, I’d like to know whether you are having a similar issue.

@Travelerguy. My card still has the Visa logo, and if they switch networks, I would expect them to inform me. From what I have read on this forum, that problem was with the CapitalOne 360 debit card. I don't have that, so I know not.

I will posit this: if the card is a double or triple reward points, it may have higher merchant fees that banks reject. Again just a guess. Maybe the Paul from Eastern Iowa, who seems to know a thing or two about banking, can comment.

I'm in the Netherlands (haven't been to Switzerland this year), and something very odd happened this morning when I tried to use my Chase United card to pay booking.com for an under-€400 hotel reservation. The booking.com website displayed an error message, indicating some (unspecified) part of the credit card information I had entered was incorrect. I verified all the entries and tried again. Same error message.

I checked for a text or email from Chase concerning a possible-fraud alert, but there was nothing.

I called Chase. Before I reached the representative who later told me no new card had been issued and the card in hand was fine to use, the automated system announced that my card had been declined because of a problem with the 3-digit code. I knew I'd used the right code, but I re-entered it. Same error message. It appears that, somewhere along the way, the code I entered was changed before it hit the verification step. That's a really odd electronic hiccup.

As I was staring at the booking.com screen trying to decide whether to pay at the hotel (losing a €20 genius-plus discount) or pull out another credit card, I realized Google Pay was an option. The Chase United card is set up for use with Google Pay. I tried that and it worked.

I used the card in person several times today with no issues.

But not only when I insert the card. SBB wouldn’t accept it online
when I tried to buy bus tickets, but accepted it later that day at a
busstop ticket machine.

"card not present" transactions are handled different than "card present". That is why the SBB app or website did not work, but the ticket vending machine did.

Apparently the problem was somewhere in a Swiss system. We tried two of the cards today - one at the very same SBB ticket machine that rejected it yesterday - and they both cleared without a hitch.

Just to be a bit safer, we also used our US bank card to get some extra cash.

Thank you for posting this as I will be there in 2 weeks. The replies to your post have been helpful. I didn't have issues my last 2 trips there ('22 and '23), and already have leftover CHF I'm bringing, but will know to keep cash available throughout the trip.