American Credit Cards-chipless are they usable in Europe?

[bella1979]

Have ya'll heard anything about American credit cards not being accepted in Europe because they are chipless? A friend of a friend just got back from Paris and he couldn't use his credit card...any ideas or thoughts?

[drjdm]

We just returned from france and you can use your card in most places but we could not buy gas without a chip on our card. Dont get caught with an empty gas tank on the weekend evenings. The only stations open were automated and needed a chip. We found a nice young guy who used his card and we gave him euros.

 

Good luck Jeff

[photographia]

I was just in Paris a couple of weeks ago. Tried to use my CC to buy a train ticket from the airport to go into the city. When I went to the automated ticket machine, it wouldn't work. Fortunately, though, there is also a ticket office there with live people in it! The lady there instantly said that my card hadn't worked in the machine because it had no chip--but she could do the transaction herself with my card with no problem.

 

That's the only problem of this nature that I have ever encountered.

[taba]

Have ya'll heard anything about American credit cards not being accepted in Europe because they are chipless? A friend of a friend just got back from Paris and he couldn't use his credit card...any ideas or thoughts?

In Paris, I had trouble finding an ATM near my hotel that would accept my card. The ATM on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower accepted my card. A few days later I was able to get additional cash at an ATM in Barcelona.

[bella1979]

So it's kind of sounding like it is automated machines...atm's, ticket booths, gas pumps etc.

[mary_228]

My daughter studied abroad in Dublin and couldn't use her card at the grocery stores, even though Visa requires them to accept it. Apparently they can call the 800 number and get an approval code but they just didn't want to bother. The more costly mini miarts, OTOH, were happy to acccept it. She ended up carrying around a lot of cash.

 

You can find out more on this topic on Wikipedia.