Originally Posted by
Nothomeenough
Searching this forum and others before our recent trip to Europe gave little consistent info on whether I needed to worry about getting a rare (in the USA) Chip and PIN vs a merely unusual Chip and Signature card. Rather than opening a new credit card, I had found that Citi would replace my current card with Chip and Signature.
In retrospect, I absolutely wish I had opened a new account with someone else to get a card with Chip and PIN. Here's where the Chip and Signature failed me.
--At a French tollbooth with no attendant at 11:00 pm when we had just arrived in the Eurozone a few hours earlier and just needed to get the kids to bed.
--At several gas stations on a rural mountain road in France where there were no cashiers (or where the cashiers could not take cash because it was Sunday).
It's not even enough to get "a" Chip & PIN card for these situations in France.
There are two types of PINs for Chip cards: "offline" PINs and "online" PINs.
France requires a Chip card with an "offline" PIN (in unattended situations, at least).
Most of the rest of Europe only need a Chip card with an "online" PIN.
But most banks in the US that do offer Chip & PIN only offer "online" PIN!
So if you have gotten a Chip & PIN card in the US that was only "online", you might have still had the exact same problems in those unattended situations in France.
So it doesn't help to "simplify" discussions of technology like this, because the information that get lost when you "simplify" (to talking as if all Chip & PIN cards are equal) gets you in trouble in some situations.