Originally Posted by
skofarrell
I understand that, but I doubt you'll see Travelex offering a chip+pin card to a US resident at one of their retail locations anytime in the near future. I'm taking this stance because I don't see them signing up for the IT support that would need to come with aligning their systems with the chip+pin infrastructure, vs. the plain ol mag swipe/ATM pin.
The card only comes in Euro or GBP variants and it is managed out of the UK. The cards could simply come pre-configured to the outlets.
Originally Posted by
skofarrell
So back to my original question, since they don't offer a chip+pin product, what advantage does this have over the debit card in your wallet? I guess if you're mugged, you'd cancel your debit card as fast as you'd cancel this one. The only thing I can think of is that if you lose this card you limit your loss to the funds you've loaded on the card. But how often do people lose their cards without noticing?
No real advantage then, you're right.
My solution: I don't have any Visa or Mastercard-branded debit cards. I just carry credit cards and two different plain old ATM cards (which require a PIN and therefore only work in ATMs--which is fine by me).