Another Chip & Pin CC Question

My wife and I will be taking a Baltic cruse this summer. I checked the Bank of America web site to find a BOA Travel Rewards Credit Card with Chip & Pin technology. All looks good except I noticed this statement in the Q&A area about the card use.

"When traveling outside the U.S., some card readers at unattended terminals (such as public transportation kiosks, gas pumps) will require a PIN. However, this type of PIN technology is different than what you normally use for PIN transactions in the U.S and the card won't be accepted. In these situations, please locate an attended terminal to complete your transaction or plan for an alternative payment method, such as local currency."

Question: Has anyone who used this card had problems using it to purchase bus or train tickets in Copenhagen or Stockholm? We would like to use the card to buy bus tickets when we start our shore excursions. We will have local currency. However it will be just our luck the bus drivers may not accept cash. Appreciate your comments, Thanks

Sounds like it is not true PIN and chip.

For Stockholm, both buses or trams requires the tickets to be bought before you board the bud/tram.

My wife and I will be taking a Baltic cruse this summer. I checked the Bank of America web site to find a BOA Travel Rewards Credit Card with Chip & Pin technology. All looks good except I noticed this statement in the Q&A area about the card use.

 

"When traveling outside the U.S., some card readers at unattended terminals (such as public transportation kiosks, gas pumps) will require a PIN. However, this type of PIN technology is different than what you normally use for PIN transactions in the U.S and the card won't be accepted. In these situations, please locate an attended terminal to complete your transaction or plan for an alternative payment method, such as local currency."

 

Question: Has anyone who used this card had problems using it to purchase bus or train tickets in Copenhagen or Stockholm? We would like to use the card to buy bus tickets when we start our shore excursions. We will have local currency. However it will be just our luck the bus drivers may not accept cash. Appreciate your comments, Thanks

The pin associated with most Chip cards in the US is not like the pins used in Europe. The pin with most US cards is for cash advances (at extremely high interest rates) whereas, in Europe it is a security measure - in essence it's the signature.

If you use local currency you should be able to muddle through without the pin. We've run into problems buying transport tickets in Germany and taxi's that only take chip and pin cards in Stockholm. Also, the machine for reading mag strip credit cards was having difficulties in our Copenhagen hotel which led to an hour long check out line. In the instance of the taxi driver, we were disembarking at final port where there was no ATM. He took dollars (Xrate he gave wasn't horrid).

Here is a newspaper article which explains the issue with most US chip cards:

http://archive.freep.com/article/20140811/COL21/308110001/chip-and-pin-credit-cards

After much research I applied for a True Chip & Pin Visa Credit card from Andrews FCU. My review of the BOA Travel Card shows it to be the Chip & Signature. Most all other credit card companies and banks are issuing the Chip & Signature. The Andrews FCU which caters to military both in the US and in Europe offers the Pin card. One has to become a member of the credit union ($5 to open an account) to apply for the credit card. It has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fees.. All good. Thanks for your previous comments

That is interesting. There reasoning is really stupid. They state that Americans are used to signing and that is why they did not just go directly to true chip and pin. Do Americans not use pin numbers every time they use their debit cards?

I am multinational and just got my pin for my new Marriott card that has no foreign transaction fee. I thought it was odd they did not send a pin directly. I was planning on using this for transactions on my next trip, but will have to keep my Swiss card now.

Another thing somewhat related, Stockholm media just featured yesterday that the police have had so many problems that they went out with a warning concerning the pin system at the subway station machines. Pickpockets are first watching for people entering their code and then stealing the card and emptying accounts.

In order for any Chip/PIN card to be useful in Europe it must be compatible with the European "EMV" (Europay, Visa, MasterCard) standard. Some US banks do not adhere to this standard or only offer Chip/Signature cards.

As to using cards in Europe (or anywhere in the world) or anywhere else in the world folks might save themselves a lot of grief if they simply did a Google search for "ATM Skimmers" or some other similar search. There are some decent online videos that explain and show what skimmers look like, hot to avoid them, and also good advice to always use something to cover your hand as you punch in a PIN number. It can also be useful to have a partner watching your back whenever you use an ATM machine.

Hank

That is interesting. There reasoning is really stupid. They state that Americans are used to signing and that is why they did not just go directly to true chip and pin. Do Americans not use pin numbers every time they use their debit cards?

 

I am multinational and just got my pin for my new Marriott card that has no foreign transaction fee. I thought it was odd they did not send a pin directly. I was planning on using this for transactions on my next trip, but will have to keep my Swiss card now.

 

Another thing somewhat related, Stockholm media just featured yesterday that the police have had so many problems that they went out with a warning concerning the pin system at the subway station machines. Pickpockets are first watching for people entering their code and then stealing the card and emptying accounts.

I agree. When I asked the folks at Bank of America about the pin for their travel card they told me the PIN is used only for cash advances: similar to a debit card but at a higher interest rate. In this day and age our leaders seen not to realize that many more Americans are traveling to Europe. In many cases the folks across the pond are light years ahead of us.

I agree. When I asked the folks at Bank of America about the pin for their travel card they told me the PIN is used only for cash advances: similar to a debit card but at a higher interest rate. In this day and age our leaders seen not to realize that many more Americans are traveling to Europe. In many cases the folks across the pond are light years ahead of us.

Agree also. We had many of these threads last year...it infuriated me so much that I sent the reporter who eventually wrote the article links to the many threads we had running on CC regarding this topic last year showing the confusion.

And, there was appears to be confusion in Europe also. When the mag reader wouldn't work at the hotel check out for some people, the woman at the desk said that her manager had told her that most US cards have pins...people just don't know it. Obviously, they also didn't know the difference between cash advance pins and "signature" pins. Thankfully our room had been prepaid.

I just spoke to Capital One asking if they had a chip and pin card available. They said they are beginning to issue chip and signature cards, but not chip and pin cards. I asked how I would use that in Europe, and I was told that it would go through without a pin and there would be no need for a signature. I'm not sure that's correct.

So is a chip and signature card really any better in Europe than the magnetic strip with signature? And is it really going to go through without a pin as the rep at Capital One claimed?