Originally Posted by
sdsearch
This year on one trip to Europe I easily found a situation where only PIN (couldn't prove whether it was online or offline) would work, no cash option, because it was an unattended gas station in late evening with no one around in rural western Norway.
Now, I had the foresight to not actually need gas at that time, but if I had really needed gas at that time, no signature card nor cash would have helped (at least without waiting a possibly very long time on this empty road until I could flag someone down who could accept cash and use their card to let me gas up a little).
I thus classify not having a (perhaps offline?) PIN as something which could cause a big problem but the likelihood of running into that problem may not be big, depending on your exact situation.
This is the key take-away on the necessity of the Chip + Pin cards - 2 years it was a lot harder without it. Now it is not the case for the majority of travelers. Just how many people would find themselves in
a deserted road in rural Western Norway in late evening? Beside the Chip and Pin card, there are other potential issues one can be stranded - what about the gas pump does not work even with Chip and Pin card because it runs out of gas? or the machine malfunctions? You always fill your tank whenever you can if you are going to travel in some rural areas and in Western Norway no less! This Summer we were in Bergen, the 2nd largest town in Norway and we finished walking the town and harbour area in less than 3 hours, including stopping in the "attractions"... I can easily imagine how deserted it can be in the rural Western Norway.
In 2014 we used the chip plus pin card 3 times in 2 European trips, including paying parking at Mt. St Michel, buying gas from an unmanned Esso station and a tram ticket. Although the Esso station purchase could easily be replaced by a Total just 200 meters ahead but on the other side of the road, and it was manned station. The tram tickets could easily be bought with cash.
In 2015 we used it ONCE in 3 trips and as I mentioned, we could easily pay the few euros instead.