Originally Posted by
cheaptom
... we'll be in Italy next week and plan to use our CSR metal card there as much as possible. (restaurants, train ticket kiosks, ...
I tried to use my CSR at train station kiosks in Bologna and a small town in Tuscany last year. It didn't work. The chip-and-pin enabled card I have from First Tech worked like a charm.
The CSR worked in every restaurant, but for over-the-counter type places I sometimes just used the chip-and-pin because it's almost always faster in Europe.
I strongly recommend that anyone who travels in Europe should get themselves a chip-and-PIN card. There aren't many US-based issuers, but the First Tech card has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee.