RRossi

I'm planning to get a chip and pin card (either Andrews or Travelex) for a one-month trip to France later this month, principally to deal with past problems at unattended gas stations, but also in case my regular CC's get rejected at other spots (hasn't happened yet, but it sounds like it is increasingly likely). Based on the recent posts, I'll be curious to see what happens with a US chip and pin card.

mia

Previous discussions suggest that some systems block all "foreign" cards, without regard to the technology.

jmr50

I had a travel notification on my card. Not sure about the others. Shouldn't have been blanket blocked, but who knows what happens when you're going to high risk places like England

kebosabi

The block is not on your card, but on the restraints on the readers and how they verify validity that you are the actual person using it.

A good example is our automated gas pumps here in the US. Dip it in, enter zip code, and start filling up your car, easy as that, right?

What about cardholders from countries that don't use the five digit postal codes (i.e. Japan: XXX-XXXX 7 numerical digit postal code format)? Er...

What about cardholders from countries that have postal codes with letters in them (i.e.: UK and Canada XXX XXX 6 alphanumeric digit postal code format)? Er...


Or it could be any of other things like maybe the software inside those readers only accept cards issued within their own country or may not have the capability to do currency conversion automatically.

Even though France and the UK may both use Chip-and-PIN, the French petrol station may not accept cards issued from the UK for fraud purposes, likewise, the UK petrol station may not accept card issued in France because the automated gas pump doesn't have the capability to convert between GBP and the EUR.

cvarming

I agree with most of what you wrote, but I can promise you that no gas pump in the UK knows how to convert GBP to EUR, and that is not a criteria used for accepting transactions. It is true that some cash registers will allow you to be charged in you home currency, but that is only there for the merchant to scam you on the exchange rate, and you should insist on being charged in the local currency. Basically, currency conversions are dealt with by Visa/MC and not visible to the merchant. So how does the merchant know that you have an EUR card? The card number. And while Visa/MC deals transparently with currency conversions, the merchant is free to initiate transactions is any currency he likes.

chrismo2

Yes, it's nice to have this chip card, but as a person from Denmark, we face the exact same problems as Americans or Canadians with chip/signature cards. The problem is that this chip/pin is not standardized very well, so many things can go wrong between countries.

In the EMV environment, there are two forms of PIN verification: Offline and online verification. In the offline mode, the PIN is checked by the chip, and there is no communication between terminal and central server. In the online environment, the PIN entered is checked against a PIN on a central server. POS devices - attended or unattended can be either online or offline (ATM's are always online). In some countries (e.g. France), all POS Devices are offline, in other countries (e.g. Denmark) all POS devices are online, and some countries have both online and offline POS terminals (e.g. Germany). Now, the problem is that not all cards support offline PIN verification, since the issuer may have chosen not to have the PIN stored on the chip due to the nature of the domestic infrastructure. This is the case in e.g. Denmark and Switzerland, where all transactions are online by rule. When an online only chip card (e.g. a Danish card) is presented in an offline POS (e.g. in France), it obviously cannot get PIN verification. If the POS device is attended, it reverts to the next level of CVM (Cardholder Verification Method) which is signature. But if it is an unattended kiosk, the transaction is declined, since the kiosk does obviously does not support signature as CVM. Since Denmark is an online only country, Danish issued cards do not support offline PIN verification, and therefore they only work as chip/signature cards in offline terminals, and they do not work at all in offline unattended POS devices. Therefore Danish cards cannot be used in SNCF and RER tickets kiosks or in uattended gas stations in France. However, they work in toll boths in France, since these do not require PIN verification. The card issuers know about this, but do not advertise it publicly (actually they hide it very well).

Another problem is that in certain other countries (e.g. Spain) all foreign cards seem to be blocked in kiosks. e.g. in McDonald's self-service kiosks and TMB kiosks in Barcelona, foreign cards (or atleast non-Euro cards) do not work. I do not know why, but this is not because of the offline problem, I tried with an offline capable card too.

BTW all Danish cards issued from August 2011 are now offline capable too and all cards will be exchanged during 2012.

YVR Cockroach

Regarding the online processing, the French system does do live online processing of CC transactions. First thing you see is the PIN being accepted as good and communications in process, followed by approval (so the terminals are connected at least by telephone if not dedicated dataline.

With a Canadian card, it worked at all the hypermarche/supermarche fuel stations I used, I think just about every parking payment machine, and for tolls on the Autoroute between Carcassonne and Narbonne.

Notable rejections were at a manned SNCF ticket booth where 3 CDN chip/PIN cards were rejected as was a traditional U.S. Visa card, autoroute between Cannes and Menton (rejected immediately), and at two restaurants though that may seem to be a function of the technology (dial up). Also got it rejected at Pont du Gard parking lot near Avignon. That step also invalidated the parking ticket which was good: Nothing manned so they let me out for free ((parking charge is a flat EUR 15).

jamar

The reason I mentioned this as an oddity is because in every circumstance, I have been able to switch to my magstripe-only cards, which function without incident.

escapefromphl

After a two week trip to France and UK I can remember several instances when we couldn't use our magstripe cards. These included the Tube, the Metro, McDonald's and a few restaurants. When they did accept magstripe they always worked.

JEFFJAGUAR

I've had no problems on the tube using my antiquated US credit card either with live human beings or the machines. In Paris, as long as there is somebody in the window, there's no problem but many stations have cut back on the hours the windows are manned or womanned. As far as the rest, is it they can't take magnetic strip cards or didn't want to?

rkb2530

FWIW I just noticed the following at the end of my last Chase BA statement:

The British Airways Visa card is now available with
chip enabled functionality. Call 1-800-577-0633 to
have a new card rushed to you.

cjkcue

Hello All,

My Wife to be and I will be traveling to Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Germany) in May for our honeymoon. We have never been to Europe and we are very excited. I understand that a lot of places in Europe will not take the standard US credit card with the magnetic strip. What are my options for credit cards that have the chip and pin technology? I would like to avoid Chase bank for now as I have many of there cards already.

Thanks for the help!

lin821

Try this sticky thread over Credit Card Programs Forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...signature.html

cjkcue

Thanks a lot!

LongviewTX

Though it's true there are a lot of places in Europe that don't accept the US credit cards, the reality is that very small portion of your total spend will be in this places. In my last set of trips that included Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and Italy, only about $100 out of $6,000+ was in places that accepted some credit cards but not the magnetic stripe ones. ALL hotels (even the smallest €50/night ones), car rentals, seat-in restaurants, gas stations I was in accepted my credit card. Don't forget to take some cash in any case as places that don't take any credit cards at all are more frequent than you would think.