Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
But as noted some have reported inserting a chip and signature card and being asked for a pin. They have then stated they entered the cash advance pin and the transaction went through as a purchase. Others have claimed you can enter any pin and the transaction will go through (much as the way with foreign credit cards say at a US self service gasoline pump when asked for the zip code entering 00000 and saying the transaction goes through. Frankly, there has been no definitive answer that anybody here can point at and say affirmatively the cash advance pin does the trick.
I can personally attest to that when using the kiosk for the canal bus in Amsterdam many years back on my mag-stripe CapOne card.
Back then, it was still possible to get around without a chip card. But there were places where signs on these kiosk that read "PIN needed for credit card transactions."
There were no chip readers, just a magnetic stripe slot. I inserted my CapOne card, and it told me to enter the PIN for this card. Since I didn't remember my PIN, I tried four zeros, some random numbers, and they both were rejected.
Back at my hotel, I called my mom to see if she could check my drawer to tell me what the PIN for this card was. After learning my PIN, I tried it again the next day using my PIN normally reserved for cash advances at the ATM. This time the transaction went through and was able to get my canal bus ticket. After this ordeal, it made me aware to keep the PIN numbers of my cards readily available somewhere or at least change it to something that I can remember.
After coming back and getting the bill, the transaction showed it as a purchase instead of a cash advance.
So even in the era of magnetic stripes, there must've been something going on in the background to tell CapOne that even though a PIN was used, this was a purchase instead of a cash advance. If that was the case with mag-stripes back then, I can certainly believe that this could be the same case with EMV Chip-and-Signature cards when prompted for the PIN at online kiosk transactions as well.
And this seems to be the case in Australia as early as last year as well:
Australia is undergoing EMV conversion right now so many cardholders in Australia still have mag-stripe only cards. Yet, as this photo from Sydney Ferries show, it says "PIN authorisation only (no signature option)"