Why Your Credit Card Might Be Useless Overseas
Posted by admin in Credit
© eliazar
The headline might be a bit dramatic, but it's true that more and more merchants in Europe and elsewhere will not accept credit cards without the "Chip and PIN" system —- an embedded chip in the Card along with a PIN number (similar to that you are probably accustomed to with your ATM card).
You, however, don't have a PIN associated with your credit card, do you? Unfortunately, as this L.A. Times article reports, it's not an easy problem to fix:
Here's the catch: Americans cannot get such a card through U.S. card issuers.
So what do you do? Well, one way to be sure you always can get by is if your bank offers a combination ATM / debit card with the Visa or MasterCard logo. That has a PIN, so you're OK. But of course this means the money will come straight out of your checking account, so you'd better have enough in there to cover your purchases. Of course, that's not really credit anymore. It's also a bit less less safe, in that it's harder to get your money back if a merchant stiffs you in some way.
The Times article also suggests that some merchants will let you get by if you also have a picture ID, although this doesn't help you if you're trying to purchase something via an automated machine that isn't staffed by humans.
It's certainly not impossible to get by with your American credit card, but it's becoming more work to do so, so take this into consideration if you're hitting Europe any time soon.
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Yes, credit cards and debit cards can work as signature transaction in Europe. You need to tell the merchant you are from a country that has not upgrade to chip and pin. Most(Not all)chip and pin terminals have a place where the card can be swiped. I was a little surprised the debit card work as a pin transaction at merchants in Europe. One theory is the debit card had a rfid chip and the terminal thought it was a chip & pin card. The transaction might of went over the maestro network.
Airport is the best place to non chip atm find what I have read.
As an American living overseas more or less since 1996, I have seen this phenomenon crop up lately here in Poland. For years Europeans have used the credit card with pin as an active security measure, but never once blinked when I used my US-issued card instead. They are much more vigilant about matching signatures though, and scoff at me as if I’ve committed a mortal sin when I haven’t yet signed a new card.
I can say that I’ve made literally thousands of attempted purchases at merchants and the only two instances where my card was rejected because I did not have a “pin” was at an automated kiosk for movie theater tickets and the newly installed self-checkout line at the grocery store.
What may happen in the future is hard to predict, but in Central Europe, it appears the that requiring the pin for credit card transactions is limited to those instances where the purchase is made without a person to physically check the card. And don’t think that having a pin code for your MasterCard, or using a debit card will work –as the article suggests, that won’t fly either. I’ve tried it!