Originally Posted by
silam
France is the only country in which I found it a hassle to have a card without a chip. The hassle only existed because machines that accepted credit often did not accept cards without chips.
This is indeed the major issue. I've had occasional problems with store clerks, but 95% of the time the clerk figures out how to do a signature transaction. A machine that isn't programmed to differentiate between the types of cards is a different manner.
I have two workarounds for machines:
a) machines that accept American Express generally work with a US American Express chipless card (the problem here is that many such machines just take Visa/MC)
b) I have a German debit card that usually works in these machines