Originally Posted by
serpens
Please pardon my ignorance. I have not been out of the US since I got my first chipped credit card.
Are you saying that if I use a card with a chip, I need to enter a PIN to make a purchase? I ask because I never get cash from a credit card, and I don't even know the PINs for any of my credit cards. In at least one case, I decline to request a PIN. If I understood that correctly, then I'll set about learning and setting PINs.
This has been a source of discussion in other threads on this board. For a variety of reasons, the US in implementing the chip cards is very insistant that using a signature to verify a purchase is what most Americans desire (they are probably right) and so our cards are set up in such a way that even if you are in a country like Canada, where their naitive cards usually require a pin, your card will generate a message to the merchant signature required, a slip will be printed for you to sign, the merchant is supposed to compare the signature on the slip with the signature on the card (ha ha ha) and the purchase is completed. There was some fear at the beginning that there would be difficulties using unpersonneled kiosks but mc/visa passed regulations prohibiting kiosks from rejecting out of hand cards lacking a pin to accomodate the US banks. So you need not worry; quite frankly you simply don't need a pin and will never be asked for one.