Originally Posted by pitflyer

Thanks for the discussion. I already have two Visa (Marriott and Southwest) which have chips with no forex fee, but neither of them support PIN at all. Depending on who and where you read having chip and PIN priority is a big deal, or at least having chip and PIN as an option is a big deal.

I will be doing some considerable traveling in the next year so the no forex fee will make a difference. The $400 sign up bonus seemed good (especially with no annual fee) but after I'm hearing all of the bad customer service and the possible limitations of redemption, I'm thinking my best choice is to

1) join American Consumer Council (free)
2) join State Department Federal Credit Union (also free, but looks like I have to at least open a 'regular share savings account' (which has no minimum) but it looks like this would require its own credit inquiry
3) get the SDFCU EMV card (which is chip and PIN priority)

I know this is going off topic now. The part that I'm not sure about is if step 2 is required -- when I jumped straight to step 3, it didnt ask me for a member number from #2 or #1. But dont want to randomly apply, take the credit hit and then get rejected..

Decisions, decisions. Guess want no forex and chip and PIN for no fee. Maybe the new Arrival "free" card will be worth it, and I can use my 'primary' cards above (which are chip and signature).. and if they fail, I can use it as my backup chip and PIN card.