northpole999

+2

noah

+1

GoAmtrak

Chase and most of the big US banks are really intransigent on shouldering the upfront infrastructure costs to join the rest of the civilized world with chip-and-PIN. Not sure if partners like UA have enough sway with the issuers to change that.

schley

Obviously as someone who lives overseas this is a very nice benefit. I just with the SPG amex would go no forex.

Thanks UA.

ChicagoDave

I like this change even though I don't have the card. The chip and PIN technology is slowly coming to the US, and there are a few credit cards that do offer it. I found a blog that talks about it, but I'm not sure how accurate it is:
http://creditcardforum.com/blog/chip...dit-cards-usa/

drewguy

I thought the issue wasn't just the banks, but the stores that would need new terminals. Of course *they* don't want to pay, so the banks would have to.

ChicagoDave

I found a thread here on FT regarding cards:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...signature.html

mgcsinc

So long as I have $0 fraud liability, the rest of the world can keep chip and pin and I'll enjoy the freewheeling American world of swipe-and-go.

goodeats21

It is a nice enhancement, and I guess it is nice to have the option, but I will still be reaching for Chase Sapphire Preferred card when overseas.

No Foreign Transaction Fees PLUS possible 2x bonus for travel and dining spend...and the points transfer 1:1 for UA miles.....

Am I missing something? Is the UA Explorer card a better option under some circumstances for Foreign transactions?

Kacee

No you're not missing anything. Sapphire is a better card. The only possible advantage of spend on the Explorer card is the annual bonus. But I think they gave me 10,000 miles for $20,000 in spend last year, which is really kind of pathetic.

Critic

Not really - Chase wouldn't be removing the mag stripe, so the existing POS terminals would work just fine. (Plus, retailers haven't exactly balked at adding NFC to their POS terminals...) The end result of adding chip & pin would give you something like the old Amex BLUE card:

ric_wx

Travel much in Europe? No chip and pin is a huge drag. Swiping is more or less forbidden in the Netherlands, and exceptions are frowned upon if tolerated at all. Even for pedestrian destinations like London you have problems, in that none of the public transport kiosks will accept a swipe card and you have to provide ID after waiting in the long lines to top up or purchase transit fare. It's a problem every trip for me and has been for some time.

I was told the swipe cards cost less than $1 to produce, and the chip and pin cards $3-$4. Multiply this by millions of cards and it gets into money, based on the % that actually get used overseas.

Would be nice if they would at least offer one if asked. This is a TRAVEL affinity card no less...

drewguy

Is fraud liability protection less in other parts of the world (i.e., for cards issued in other countries)? I could see why the cost of Chip and Pin would be something consumers would demand there.

mgcsinc

Totally agree, and I have a chip and pin card for this purpose. I was responding about the prospect of adoping chip and pin domestically.

I don't know. What I do know is that I have had many conversations that go like this:

Me: Why whould I want that chip and pin / RSA keyfob / rotating password list / some other bizarro excessive European financial security mechanism?

European: To keep your money from getting stolen! Plus, it lets me do more things with my account, like transfer funds!

Me: I can do all of that without [fancy security measure].

European: Oh.

Me: And I have zero fraud liability, so I'm not worried about theft.

European: But...

escapefromphl

I assume this benefit doesn't apply to the old United Platinum visa?