Originally Posted by JEFFJAGUAR

We are like the voices of reason here. I came aboard on the long closed other thread when there was an increasing problem with chipless USA credit cards not being accepted in countries outside the USA. While the problem never reached a crisis stage there was a growing degree of inconveniene.

The US banks were finally forced to go to emv cards not so much because they cared about our inconveniences but because fraud was becoming a greater and greater isssue and the USA was becoming the fraud capital of the western world. We got our emv but of course we were disappointed when it became apparent for the most part we were getting chip and signature with some issuers giving us cards with pin capabilities in kiosks. We worried the problem had hardly been resolved. We were assured mc/visa would be taking steps to make sure our cards were universally honored.

One has to grudgingly admit for the most part the chip and signature cards are honored. Sure there are a few instances of problems, especially when off the beaten track for tourists, but hardly overwhelming. The forum has now become not so much worrying about having our cards not honored but rather such and such domestic merchants have activated their emv terminals. I, in all due respect to everybody else, just don't understand this fascination with this. The people here are smart enough to understand that we indeed have zero liability for fraud and quite frankly it makes little difference whether a merchant processes a transaction with or without a pin, whether a pin is online or offline and things of that ilk. What I am most interested in, and the reason I continue to come here, is what information people can provide where there is difficulty in using a chip and signature card. Those instances do seem to be few and far between thank goodness.