Originally Posted by
abaheti
I'm headed to Turkey soon. Anyone have experience with stripe or chip+signature there?
Sorry if slightly off topic; feel free to PM me if you prefer.
Live merchant case only:
Was on a cruise with my Japanese ex-girlfriend four years ago touring Greek islands and several port cities in Turkey.
Some merchants in Turkey were reluctant to accept my US issued swipe-only credit card. Wouldn't let me use it since I had no passport or ID to prove that I was the cardholder (cruise ship kept our passports).
My Japanese girlfriend at the time had a chipped Japan-issued VISA card and they were happy to take those. I ended up asking her to use her card instead and I paid her in JPY back in Japan.
Got back on cruise ship and inquired about why was the case. They mentioned that they some Turkish merchants instituted policies of refusing mag-stripe only cards because of the amount of skimmed card frauds they received in the past. People from Romania or Bulgaria would come and visit Turkey and buy stuff with cloned mag-stripes and got away with their goods, with Turkish merchants holding up the short end of the stick of fraud. Those that experienced those cases ended up implementing a blanket no mag-stripe policy.