credit cards and atm

There are times you could use one. In AtM's my debit card worked everywhere last summer in Ireland. At one tourist shop, they pulled out the "old" credit card machine for "us Americans". On our last trip I had enough cash each day not to need to use one for buses, etc. I googled and found this article - check out this website - It says that one bank in USA is now issuing these cards. - http://blogs.creditcards.com/2010/06/want-bike-you-need-chip-and-pin-credit-card.php

Thanks, I'll try that.

What kind of problems and what kind of transactions gave you problems? My generic ATM and credit cards work fine all over the place - - including Rome and Dublin. Others have posted that there might be issues with automated ticket machines, ect, but I've never needed to use those.

I've never had a problem with my stripe cards, either, on four trips to Ireland. Did you notify your bank that you would be traveling?

Remember that a debit card is not a credit card, and vice versa. In the UK, and I believe Ireland as well, American debit cards work fine in ATM's. Businesses in touristed areas happily take American credit cards, not being fools. If you are off the beaten path, they might not be happy about accepting an American credit card but, as I understand it, the credit card companies require them to accept credit cards that are not chip-and-pin. Of course, that doesn't mean they want to.

Bernice, Could you provide a bit more detailed information on instances when you had problems with your existing cards? Were these credit cards or ATM cards? I've never had any problems withdrawing cash from ATM's as a result of the fact these were "magnetic stripe" cards. AFAIK, there are no plans to change ATM's to "chip & PIN" technology only. As the others have mentioned, you should still be able to use older "magnetic stripe" credit cards at any merchants or staffed ticket offices. However, I've found that many merchants tend to assume customers will always use "chip & PIN" cards, so you may get some strange looks. Where you may have problems using credit cards is with automated ticket Kiosks (ie: those at Paris / CDG) or the Velib Bikes as mentioned, Fuel pumps, etc. When I was in Rome several months ago, the ticket machines at FCO and Termini would still accept magnetic stripe credit cards (although I have "chip & PIN" cards, the machines never asked for a PIN so they were obviously using the magnetic stripe to process the transaction). Cheers!

Marie, if you had read the article you cite carefully, you would find that the only entity issuing American chip and pin cards is the United Nations Credit Union, which is only open to current and retired members of the United Nations. It also says that there is no plan currently as to when they might be released to the general public. So it looks like there is no other option but to use our magnetic stripe cards abroad.

Thank you, Nancy, for saving me the time of reading the article. I searched last year and could find nothing. I have never had a problem with an ATM card, except in Rome where I wanted to input an amount other than the standard amounts listed on the screen. When I used the prearranged amounts, no problem. As to credit cards, many non-attended machines will not take the US cards. Gas stations without an attendant will not take them. We had problems with some BP stations where the attendants would not accept US credit cards. I believe there are problems with some train station machines as well. But, all that said, generally one can find an attended sales sight where your US card will be accepted.