Plastic peril for American travelers in Europe
Travelers bound for Europe should know: your US credit cards may not work.
“Thanks to new technological advances, old-fashioned tax evasion, and merchants’ disgust with fees, your US credit card is not nearly as welcome as cash,” writes Rick Steves of Tribune Media Services.
Much of Europe has started implementing a chip-and-PIN system, using credit cards that are embedded with a microchip and require a Personal Identification Number (PIN code) for transactions.
“What this means for Americans is that your magnetic-stripe credit card won’t be accepted at some automated payment points, such as ticket machines at train and subway stations, luggage lockers, toll roads, parking garages, and self-serve gas pumps,” he writes.
The chip-and-PIN system is most commonly used in the British Isles, Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Most of Western Europe should be converted to chip-and-PIN cards in 2012 (and Canada will complete its conversion in 2015).
Chip-and-PIN cardholders don’t sign a receipt when making a purchase — instead they enter a PIN (similar to using a debit card for a point-of-sale purchase in the US). Europe’s automated machines will sometimes take a US credit card if the card holder knows the card’s PIN number.
All cards have them. Card-users need to ask their bank for the number before leaving on their trips.
Steves’ urges card-users not to panic if a card is rejected. Just like at home, cash works. “It’s easy to withdraw cash from a nearby ATM (there’s no problem using magnetic-strip debit cards in European ATMs), or simply carry sufficient cash with you (in your money belt for safekeeping),” he writes.
By David Wilkening
David
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