Originally Posted by
Middle_Seat
In preparation for a vacation to Paris and Brussels, my wife has read various warnings online about needing a chipped credit card in those nations.
According to apl175, no such credit card is available in the US, so it looks as if we may be getting a lot of Euros from ATMs.
Do ATMs in France and Belgium require chipped cards (e.g., Visa branded check cards)?
US-issued check cards work just fine most anywhere in Europe - all you need is the 4 digit PIN.
Most businesses in large cities are equiped with card readers that still read the meg tape cards. However, some smallish restaurants may not have that and thus would require you to pay cash.
The real problems are, the unmanned gas stations and toll booths would only accept the Smart Chip Cards. If you are caught with low gas on a Weekend in Switzerland or France, you are completely out of luck when all the manned gas stations closed. Or if you took a wrong exit on a toll road, and then realized the toll booth for you to return back to the freeway is not manned and only accept Smart Chip Card... Or you are at a train station, the only way to get train tickets is thru the machines which of course only take Smart Chip Cards...
US travellers to Europe need to be aware of such scenario and not to be caught off-guard.