Chip and Pin Credit Cards..... again....

Interesting article from the Los Angeles Times Travel section, August 17, 2008.....

…latimes.com/articles/la-tr-insider17-2008au…

Anyone with any recent problems....?

|||

Traveled in Provence and the Riviera in the Spring using US debit and credit cards. The only refusal was at one autoroute toll booth. Didn%26#39;t need a pin other than at ATM%26#39;s. No problems in restaurants, shops or hotels.

|||

I had this problem last time i was in the US! They swiped my US debit card at the supermarket and asked me to enter the code, which i didn%26#39;t have because i only used that card in France where they don%26#39;t ask for it.

In France if your card doesn%26#39;t have a chip they swipe it and the card readers they use don%26#39;t distinguish between debit and credit cards, so you will never (knock on wood) be asked for a pin code on a card that doesn%26#39;t have a chip. However, I guess it could happen, it has just never happened to me, but that could change.

|||

%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;No problems in restaurants, shops or hotels%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

While you may not have a problem in a hotel or other area which survives on tourism, you may not be able to purchase (1) gasoline on a weekend or holiday, (2) train/m tickets at a kiosk, (3) passage at some toll booths as noted (but it%26#39;s difficult to know exactly which one until you%26#39;re already in line), and I have had my pin-less credit card rejected at restaurants.

These items have been discussed at length at various times here on this forum and I believe the problem for US travelers will only worsen in the future. Ultimately however I believe pin-less credit cards will continue to be accepted outside of the US but be prepared for delays, inconvenience, and awkward situations.

While this is an interesting article, there are two points with which I disagree:

1. Travelers%26#39; Checks are not a payment option for thoe without EVM credit cards. Travelers%26#39; Checks are prone to fraud and counterfeiting and are accepted by fewer and fewer businesses. Most importantly, the ATM has made them all but obsolete.

2. Though I do not have the numbers at hand, I believe it is the vendor who pays the price for credit card fraud, not the banks (known as %26quot;charge backs%26quot;). The banks%26#39; exposure is limited and that is why we will not see the adoption of EVM cards in the US.

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 7:16 pm, October 03, 2009