Travelex Chip & Pin Cash Passport users

[clherrer]

Has anyone used a Travelex Chip & Pin Cash Passport recently? We are looking at this as an alternate to our personal credit card for OFF ship purchases. We realize that we should have some local currency for vendors who would not take a "credit card". We will be traveling in Israel, Turkey, Italy and Greece.

[kitty9]

A lot of places, especially smaller shops, don't like to accept those cards. They're best use is to access cash at ATM's. For some reason, I've found that a lot of places only accept cards with an actual name embossed on it. Like I said, a lot of foreign vendors just don't seem to understand the whole debit card thing. Just make sure to take a regular credit card also.

[cherylandtk]

A chip and pin card is a regular credit card and is the next standard in card security. It replaces the magnetic strip swipe method and is used all over Europe. American banks are slow to adopt the new technology, but without it US travelers cannot access some automated functions, such as gas pumps or train tickets.

 

Here's a link that tells more. Reportedly Chase and Wells Fargo are exploring the idea, with Chase so far the only US bank offering a chip card.

http://travel.usatoday.com/deals/inside/story/2011/04/Travel-friendly-chip-and-pin-credit-cards-coming-to-US/46327546/1

 

I don't recall seeing any reports yet on the Travelex card.

[cherylandtk]

After looking around online I did find one report on the Travelex card. Not very flattering:

http://www.frommers.com/blog/?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&UID=3ec3ac40-db8a-4d10-a884-acf9ccad0879&plckPostId=Blog%3A3ec3ac40-db8a-4d10-a884-acf9ccad0879Post%3A3143a55d-845c-4f8f-90fa-799716b6379b&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

[CruiseLuvver]

Most retailers in those countries should accept chip & PIN cards, but possibly not Travelex. As post #2 said, Travelex is probably best kept for using in an ATM. If you want to purchase goods in shops in those countries, you're best off getting a normal chip & PIN card such as Mastercard or Visa, or use your normal CC, but take some ID with you - as long as you have that, the retailer should just run the card through and get you to sign the slip. If it's of any help, I was in the US in June, and I had no problem paying with my chipped CC - the retailer just got me to sign, but because it was a foreign card, I was asked for ID nearly everywhere. It should apply the other way round too.

[cherylandtk]

Cruiseluvver-It should work the other way round, and mostly it does, but the biggest issue is that chip and pin cards are not readily available to US consumers. As noted above, a couple of banks are making some inroads, but unless one qualifies for the one card or is selected in the random sample of the other bank, there is no way to obtain a chip and pin card for the average US citizen. So we are stuck with either our old-fashioned swipe cards for person to person transactions or the Travelex chip and pin prepaid card for automated payments.

[CruiseLuvver]

Yes, but European countries know that, so as long as you have ID, there's rarely any problem. A card with a chip is more likely to cause problems if the equipment's not set up to deal with it.