Has anyone had any recent experience of being American and having to use a non-chip and pin credit card in Europe.

I will be visiting the UK as well as the Netherlands and was wondering if I was going to have issues. I was in the UK in 2010 and in general it was okay but I had a couple of places in London refuse my card. Luckily I was with British friends who live there and they paid. When I got back I complained to Visa and they acknowledged the problem and said they were trying to resolve it.

Most of my cards are non chip although one recently turned up which is chip and signature. I also happen to have a UK bank account which comes with a Visa debit card but being issued in the UK it is a chip and pin card. If the US credit cards fail hopefully I can use the UK debit card.

Does anyone know if Visa debit cards issued in the UK would be accepted in the Netherlands for things like purchasing rail tickets?