gfunkdave

I have a Bank of America MC that I've had for 22 years - in college when I got the precursor to it, it was the MBNA University of Illinois Mastercard and I got a free t-shirt for signing up for it on the quad. Over the years, after BoA bought MBNA, they've replaced it with a few different cards. Now it is a Bank Americard World Mastercard or something like that. I noticed that I can set a PIN on the website for it - does this mean it's an actual chip and PIN card? I'm going to Europe tonight and will need to park in an automated lot that I'm told only takes chip and PIN Mastercard.

Thanks!

mia

If you mention the countries you will be visiting you should receive better advice about how USA-issued cards are processed. Adding a PIN does not transform a USA-issued card into a Chip & PIN card. The chip contains a prioritized set of protocols, as does the payment terminal, and they will negotiate to find the highest common protocol.

Recent discussion: Confused on PIN and also "Tap"

Primary discussion: Bank of America Mastercard chip and PIN?

EmailKid

Ya, about that chip and pin with US cards ....

I was on the phone with Chase (don't recall reason) and they offered me to set a pin for CC.

"That would enable me to use it in Europe" said I hopefully.

"No, that would be for ca$h advance with CC in US" was the reply. "You don't need pin to use CC in Europe."

"You do with some unattended kiosks" was my reply.

Person was not aware of that.

Sounds like OP''s situation with different issuing bank.

gfunkdave

Oooh, thanks mia! I'm going to the Netherlands and Belgium but the question was mainly geared to the parking lot at the Rederik-Doeksen ferry terminal in Harlingen which has this sign:

https://imgur.com/a/meUSgJe

So I could probably use tap to pay (as long as it's a Mastercard) too.

philemer

Have a great trip.

tmiw

Additionally, now that contactless is finally gaining steam in the US, even a lot of the cards that have been recommended in the past for PIN (e.g. Barclays) have tweaked those priorities to guarantee that PIN is never asked for either domestically or even at a lot of unmanned terminals abroad--if not have gotten rid of most/all PIN support entirely.

Anyway, for the last couple of years, my recommendation for overseas travel has basically been "add your card(s) to your phone and use that" as it's mandatory per the card networks for merchants in much of the rest of the card-using world to support contactless. Paying with a phone or watch also typically bypasses any monetary limits for contactless the country you're visiting has imposed, whereas you may still have to insert occasionally if you try to tap a physical card. Of course, "mandatory" doesn't mean there won't be exceptions where you still have to insert a card (and possibly even need to enter a potentially nonexistent PIN) but there are a lot fewer of those than there used to be.

dw

Thanks for this heads up- pre-COVID I always relied on my Barclays cards in Europe and was not aware that they had made changes to their card CVMs

tmiw

Keep in mind that IIRC Barlcays still supports both PIN types, just that you probably won't be asked for it unless you happen to get extremely unlucky with unmanned terminals overseas (vs. being asked for it every time you inserted at one, even domestically). I suspect the last bit is why they tweaked the CVM list, especially since gas pumps are now starting to support EMV.

rasheed

In the US, Kroger family gas pumps consistently ask for PIN on Barclay cards, but allow bypass.

USPS Kiosk used to as well, but those seem to change in process often.

tmiw

Does your Barclays card have contactless? That seems to be the indication that the CVM list changed. I'll see if I can dig out the stuff to run cardpeek again and/or find where this was originally reported.

EDIT: link to previous report on FT of the CVM list changing.

gfunkdave

I used my BofA card in Europe the last couple weeks, but everywhere it contactless so it never asked for a PIN. Then I discovered that BofA was charging me foreign transaction fees so I stopped using the card and only used my Chase United Explorer or Sapphire Reserve.

At this point I might just cancel the BofA card. I've had it for 22 years but never use it, and I don't really care about longevity of credit history since I have other cards of almost the same vintage.

rasheed

Right, I don't have contactless on this particular card yet. I agree that No CVM order change likely reduces PIN (if not fully) in the US. I don't know if this card will ever get contactless though.

Rasheed

AZ_MISMAN

Once you get home, call in and request a refund of the fees. If you have any other relationship, you should be able to get *something* back.

tmiw

Since the US doesn't mandate anything in terms of CVM and given that it's an online only country, the CVM list change basically guarantees that PIN will never be asked for with any domestic transactions. It's a potentially different story elsewhere, though, especially if there are still unmanned terminals floating around that weren't updated to accept "no CVM" as valid.

Still, the general worldwide trend is to go away from insert altogether (or at least as much as possible), so we should probably try to follow everyone else's lead.