US credit cards are not being read in France.

We just returned (Oct 4) from our trip to Normandy and Paris. We had absolutely no problems with tolls, merchants or gas pumps using our credit and debit cards. All of our cards have chips in them. The Post office in Zurich did reject our ATM card.

Back in April of this year I was in the Nice area for about a week and had no problems using my magnetic strip credit card at any merchant. I used over twenty times, it was never an issue.

You are all lucky that your cards had the chips. CapitalOne said they will not have them all converted until early 2016

I didn't have a chip on my card, I specifically said I was using magnetic strip card without any difficulties.

Merchants, never had a problem. Machines, often they are card-only (no cash accepted) for things like train tickets, so you're forced to wait in line for the human.

As virtually all USA chip cards are chip+signature, they do not have a PIN embedded in them,

I have used 0000 on the machine.
Sometimes it works.

USAA does have a chip+pin card that can be requested at sign-up time, if you are a member.
Make sure it is a 4 digit pin to conform to Euro standards.

We were in southern France this summer. Our Andrews chip and pin card worked at an unmanned gas station but not at parking kiosks or toll booths. Be sure to carry cash (20 euros or smaller) to pay tolls and parking garage fees.

I just called my credit card companies last week and requested new chip and pin cards. All of them (American Express, Capital One, Citibank and Discover) sent me new copies of my cards all with the chip in them. Just an FYI.

At least some of your cards aren't chip and PIN. Most US banks are issuing chip and signature cards. American Express does not have any cards with PINs.

Our Andrews chip and pin card worked at an unmanned gas station but not at parking kiosks or toll booths.

My Andrews card has worked at parking kiosks as well as unmanned gas stations (and train station machines) in France, but not at toll booths.

I'm sorry but much of the information the MrsEB has posted above is not correct. Congress did not pass a law requiring chips on credit cards--it came out of the banking industry. And Visa and MasterCard (along with the banking industry) decided to launch cards with chip-and-signature technology rather than chip-and-PIN technology. The basic reason is that they thought Americans were too dumb to remember the PINs for all their credit cards.

Lastly, the statement "for traveling in Europe, pin/signature cards ARE accepted in their pin/chip credit card machines" is not entirely accurate. MrsEB probably meant that the card readers work with these cards in live transactions. But if you are at a stand-alone payment machine, you could get into trouble at train stations, toll booths or gas stations. While this can be a confusing topic, basically the rule is that if the payment machine is offline, then the only credit card that will work is a true chip-and-PIN card. How do you know if the payment machine is offline? Well, you often don't know until you try it. But if you monitor forums like this one, you'll know that toll booths on the French autoroute, train ticket machines in the Netherlands, and gas pumps in many countries in Europe are offline and only accept chip-and-PIN cards. My advice is to look for a clerk when you want to use your credit card at gas stations, train stations, parking garages, etc, and have lots of cash. If you want the convenience of a true chip-and-PIN credit, Andrews Federal Credit Union and the State Department Credit Union offer them. I've also heard reports that some of the Wells Fargo and Barclaycard cards are true chip-and-PIN cards.

Happy to report that Copenhagen train station ticket machines are smart enough to accept DKK coins. Machine took 20 and 10 DKK coins and returned correct change with tickets.

I understand that ATMs are always wired to the internet, which is necessary for the approval process of most US cards. (Of course, only use a debit card to withdraw cash from an ATM, except in case of real emergency, since credit card cash withdrawals will start generating interest charges right away.) On the other hand, parking kiosks and gas pumps usually are not wired that way, hence the issues for travelers without chip and PIN.

If you haven't traveled in Europe for a while, see more at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money.

Mrs.EB,

" for traveling in Europe, pin/signature cards ARE accepted in their pin/chip credit card machines."

That's not true in all cases. For example, when purchasing rail tickets in Amsterdam either at Kiosks OR from the staffed ticket windows ONLY true Chip & PIN (EMV) credit cards are accepted. I've witnessed travellers with other types of credit cards being turned away because they didn't have a C&P card. Therefore, it's a good idea to always have some cash available in case one encounters a situation like that.

Another example is the ticket Kiosks at CDG. According to the Paris By Train website, "Even more important to note is that any credit cards or debit cards without smart chips nor 4-6 digit PIN numbers will not work with these machines." That means travellers with the old fashioned magnetic stripe cards or Chip & Signature cards will have to use one of the staffed ticket windows, which often have a long queue.

The inexorable march towards C&P technology is continuing, so this may be an increasing problem in future for people with other types of cards (such as Chip & Signature).