Hmm, I bank at Star One CU.

Going to contact them about whether I can get my Visa from them changed to an EMV one.

How are the forex fees and the exchange rates they use though?

Not necessarily so (in more than one country): Reason: Once you hae a card, any card, with chip & PIN and the right kind of verification (online vs offline), the remaining incompatiblities are often country-specific, not continent-specific. To get around them, you'd need a separate card from a bank in the same country that you were visitng. And have you counted how many countries there are in Europe?

(Neither the European Union nor the Eurozone means that all cards issued in all those countries are guaranteed to work everywhere in all the other countries. And, at any rate, there's tons of European countries not in the Eurozone, and even a signficant number not in the EU.)

I just spoke with 3 different CSR and got mixed messages but in the end was shot down on all occasions of getting an EMV for my CitiAAdvantage VISA card - saying it was not available

Try twittering @AskCiti and attach HookemHorns scan as proof that it is available.

Well I exchanged a couple of emails with Starone credit union and they agreed to have their card dept. contact me about getting an EMV card because I told them I have travel plans.

But I just called them now on my own. Initially, they were going to send an EMV card to replace/complement an existing Debit Visa, which applies transactions directly out of my checking account. She had me select a 5-digit PIN over the phone.

But after I got off the phone, I just had more questions, like what happens to my existing PIN and do I use one PIN for ATMs and one PIN for the chip transactions.

So I called back and talked to another rep. She said they do have a EMV for their regular "classic VISA." I asked for that and they are sending one out to me.

They said it would have a different number than my existing Visa (which I haven't used in years). They will mail a PIN for that separately.

Nice thing about their Visa is no annual fees and just 1% forex imposed by Visa. They don't have their own surcharge. But there isn't any kind of rewards program, which is why I've been using other cards.

However, apparently when you travel overseas, you have to tell them you will be using the cards out of the country. So that's kind of a hassle, as I haven't had too many problems with other cards (once I think my old Schwab Visa might have been declined and I had to call back to the US).

Citibank thank You Card EMV
 

I went through the process of having the CSR's on the phone tell me that my regular Citibank Thank You Card (i.e. not Preferred, Premier or Prestige; no annual fee, with 3% forex fee) did not have any options for me to convert to an EMV card.
This was also after I spoke with an Account Manager (supervisor). I followed the advice on this forum and sent a msg to the @AskCiti twitter feed.

Within 2 minutes of calling me, Jason from the @AskCiti twitter confirmed that my card was eligible for the EMV option.
Interestingly, he said that the 'supervisor' I spoke with the night before had already changed my card type on the system to one with an EMV, though had not posted a card out to me. I thought this was really bizarre, especially as that same person had insisted this option was not available to me!

I paid extra to have the card overnighted to me so that I will be able to take this on my overseas trip next week. I also have the Chase BA Visa signature with EMV ($95 annual fee, no FOREX fee), though I thought it would be good to have a backup, just in case. I wasn't able to add this card to the Google Doc. If someone has edit access, please add this card.

Thank you forum members for the great advice!

See image here:
http://postimage.org/image/w37frl0pb

Thanks for your information; the Citi Thank You card has been added to the list

Moderator action
 

Most discussion of the Andrews Federal Credit Union Chip & PIN card has been extracted to a separate thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...e-reports.html

Revised notes for Andrews FCU to read http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...e-reports.html thread.

Also revised the first page of that thread to add note to urge applicants to act on good faith when joining Andrews FCU.

Just got this:

https://picasaweb.google.com/wco811/...21715764523554

They're suppose to be sending the PIN in a separate mailing.

Guess there's no place to try it out in the US.

Will be able to try in a couple of weeks, in Italy. Will need to buy at least one train ticket.

Cool. ^

Since there's very little info on StarOne Credit Union (everything on the Google Docs is "unknown"), would you mind letting us know the details so it can be updated to the spreadsheet? :confused:

card name
VISA or MC or AMEX
annual fee
forex %
rewards
Chip-and-PIN or Chip-and-Signature
report on how easy it was to get
credit union membership requirements
etc.

I'm afraid this is not a national CU. A family member worked for one of the companies listed here:

http://www.starone.org/home/joinus/whocanjoin

Maybe they've liberalized a bit because they've expanded branches in the 2 decades or so that I've been a member. You can email and ask.

They also have an online form for application though it looks like you have to send in a signature card.

I've had a Visa from them forever. No annual fee, currently 10.5% and forex they say is the 1% that Visa imposes.

There are no rewards though:

http://www.starone.org/home/creditcards/overview

I have the Visa Classic and never applied for the other cards.

I called the regular number for support and after they verified my membership, I asked for the EMV card. They said it wasn't available but I said I heard they are issuing to people who travel.

So after that, they said they would send me one. Perhaps my longstanding membership figured into this.

I just activated my EMV Citi AA Platinum Select Visa Signature cards. I asked for them during my retention offer and a "supervisor" ended up figuring out how to issue an EMV replacement card.

On related note, when I activated the CSR said I didn't need to set up a PIN... Looks like I get to call again.

This is a Chip & Signature card, no PIN is required.