Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
What does Gary want to tell those of us who travel today, not 5 years from now, who are increasingly finding it difficult to carry out routine transactions with the non chip American credit cards?
If you're addicted to the convenience of plastic, Barclay's has a product for you. You've had access to chip and pin as long as they've been around. Although the UK would be a better place to get an account (if you can), because the UK has the extra legal protections for PIN authorization.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
His solution seems to be, use cash.
I don't own that solution. The cash payment solution is a reality of consuming Europe. You may think carrying cash and counting coins is inconvenient, but it's not as inconvenient as discovering that you've just dined in a cash-only restaurant, and all you have is plastic, in which case you have to make a dash for the ATM, and perhaps leave collateral while you do so. Or even discovering it's a no-plastic resto in advance, and deciding to walk out.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
I find that overwhelmingly inconvenient and not a good way to travel in the 21st century.
Sure, but you can't impose requirements on merchants. They have a right to accept whatever legal tender they want. Some merchants even refuse certain bills. In Europe, the customer is not always right. It's a whole different mentality here.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
As I've said, at least for the time being, chip and pin is the norm throughout most of the civilized and even uncivilized world, well at least chip.
The magstripe has orders of magnitude higher acceptance than chip and pin.