Searching this forum and others before our recent trip to Europe gave little consistent info on whether I needed to worry about getting a rare (in the USA) Chip and PIN vs a merely unusual Chip and Signature card. Rather than opening a new credit card, I had found that Citi would replace my current card with Chip and Signature.

In retrospect, I absolutely wish I had opened a new account with someone else to get a card with Chip and PIN. Here's where the Chip and Signature failed me.

--At a French tollbooth with no attendant at 11:00 pm when we had just arrived in the Eurozone a few hours earlier and just needed to get the kids to bed.

--At several gas stations on a rural mountain road in France where there were no cashiers (or where the cashiers could not take cash because it was Sunday).

--At a train station in rural Sweden where there was ONLY a machine for tickets.

These are just the highlights--the ones where my blood pressure spiked because workarounds were difficult. The card was pretty much useless in gas pumps and toll booths everywhere we went. It generally did work where we could get a human to help, but that's not always the case.

What amazes me is that cards branded by airlines and hotels--which are obviously targeting travelers--don't offer this option.

Anyway, those were instances where Chip and Signature failed me. What about others?

So far I've never had chip and signature rejected. Be a PITA, yes. All the time. But never rejected.

I was in Italy 3 weeks ago and If I didn't have my USAA chip and pin I'd still be at that toll booth in Parma. My CSP and Barclays Arrival failed me there.

I have a chip and signature card from citi. I have used the cash advance pin assigned to the card successfully at ticket machines etc all over Europe without a problem.

A lot of ticket stations I have used will fail on chip and signature (e.g., Arlanda Express/train stations in Sweden, train stations in Amsterdam), though others work fine (e.g., London Underground).

I've also had some weird behavior occasionally with credit machines where chip and signature will be declined and if I ask them to swipe the machine will require the chip to be used. I carry a non-chip no FTF card specifically to use to swipe in these situations.

I don't think OP understands that the cash advance pin is the same pin for chip and pin. And you always get a cash advance pin. And it's not counted as a cash advance.

I had same problem in Paris recently, only it worked initially then stopped for no apparent reason.



The card is rejected before any PIN option appears.

For me, it was different in different places. In one place, if I'd had my cash advance PIN, maybe it would have worked. Everywhere else, my card was declined before I had an option for a PIN.

I had off-again-on-again success with the ticket machines for the Berlin metro. On the other hand, I sometimes couldn't even get those machines to take clean Euro bills either.

No issues with either SBB or OEBB ticket machines in Switzerland and Austria two weeks ago.

Did you have a Citi Visa or MC? The Visa doesn't allow PIN the MC does.

MasterCard. Apparently we had different experiences, as most often, I wasn't even given an option to enter a PIN.

The "Fresh" market at Grand Canal in Dublin doesn't accept Chip and Sign. And ticket machines for the DART train (mistakenly) indicate you have exceeded your daily limit.

Correct. This happened on our Citi Premium card which we had successfully used the cash advance PIN just last year, at Trenitalia kiosk.

However this year the machine rejected the card even before the PIN screen showed up when we tried to use it at the kiosk at Milan.

The Chip and Signature card requires REAL TIME communication to the bank in order to process the transaction.

The system in France, Austria, Swiss, (and now you have proven in Sweden also), uses the PIN stored on the Chip itself, and is not a real time process. i.e. the transaction is not transmitted to your bank for authorization at the time you use the card, instead, the authorization seeks the PIN info on the chip which of course has none with a Chip and Signature card.

When traveling in Europe without the Chip and PIN card, you would need to pay attention to the calendar to avoid having to fill up on Weekends and holidays, as well as to have loads of Euro coins to pay toll should you need to use toll roads. In short, you would need to PLAN AHEAD to overcome such obstacles.

Last year the Citi premium card cash advance PIN worked but this year the same Trenitalia kiosk rejected the card before even gave the PIN option.

No I've never used it I just know the card allows it. It allows enciphered online PIN not plaintext offline PIN so the terminal must be continuously network connected.