At this point in time, one can even say "why should I pay [insert annual fee] for a card that doesn't even have a chip" as a starting point in your conversation to waive the annual fee.

There are now no annual fee chip cards out there that makes life much easier when traveling abroad.

Points and rewards are great but those are soft end features. Benefits, points, and rewards are features that are tied to the card on the server end.

A chip on a card in contrast, is a physical feature on the card itself that actually helps makes international travel easier with a lot less hassle. Benefits, points and rewards don't help when you're trying to convince a non-English speaking minimum wage earning cashier abroad whose never processed a mag-stripe in his/her life. Benefits, points and rewards don't help when you need to buy a rail ticket but the automated machine only takes chip cards. Benefits, points and rewards don't help when you're out of gas in rural France on Sunday and there are no attendants.

And if there are now no annual fee cards that come with a chip, what's the point of paying an annual fee on a card that doesn't have one? It's like you're paying annual fees for the privilege of making international travel a hassle.


You can pay top-dollar to have a basic cell phone that's made out of diamonds, sapphire, and designed by Ferrari or pay a lot less and get a cool Apple iPhone which has all the physical features like a camera, a GPS, and others that makes life much more easier. Ooh gee an AMEX Platinum card? Wow what a great design and look at all the benefits! But will it help me in these real life scenario cases noted above? No? And how much does it cost? $495 a year? Ummm, I think I'll pass.