I am taking a vacation to Italy in a few weeks and I’ve been thinking about getting a pre-paid chip and pin debit card for the trip. (I live in the US and the closest actual credit card I could get would be “chip and signature.”) So far the only ones I’ve been able to find are total rip-offs, like the Cash Passport offered by Travelex. Does anyone know of one I could get without having to pay 10%+ in fees? Thanks in advance for your assistance!
PS. Just in case anyone is wondering, yes I do have a regular magnetic strip US-style credit card that I will be bringing, but I thought the chip and pin would make my life easier over there.
We traveled to Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore almost 20 years ago and used our bank credit/debit card everywhere. I can’t believe that at this point in time that it would be a problem in Italy. Check with your bank where your card can be used in Italy. I think you will be surprised. Happy trails!
NETA: It might be too late, but I would take at least two cards in case one gets a hold on it for whatever reason. You might also want to call your card company to let them know that you will be traveling abroad so they don’t think your card has been stolen.
At most tourist destinations, your regular swipe/signature credit card will work at most hotels, restaurants, shops, gas stations (during hours they’re attended) and all toll plazas and Autogrills on the autostradas. Gas stations after hours require a chip-and-pin card and occasionally will take cash. Were I you, I’d withdraw money from an ATM to use for paying for meals at restaurants.
Since you’re using a credit card overseas, look up the international access phone number on AT&T’s website. When your card gets declined, use this number and the “call collect” phone number on the back of your credit card to contact the credit card company for free. Use a pay phone; hotels often charge for toll-free calls. You may need to call a few times because the bank may not answer the phone quickly enough for AT&T. You know what? Once you get to Italy, call the credit card company to tell them you’re there. You’ll verify the bank knows you’ve arrived and you’ve practiced calling in case the card is declined.
You don’t want a debit card in this situation; should there be an error, your real money would be in limbo until the error is fixed. With a credit card, you have some breathing room.
Make sure, before you travel overseas, to notify the credit card company of the dates you will be out of the country. Because of fraud, they may reject any purchases that are not within your usual usage area.
I’ve been to Europe twice in the past 5 years- once to Italy and once to Belgium and the Netherlands, and the only time I ever had any issue was at Brussels Midi- they were pissy about the chip & pin cards. Everyone else didn’t give a damn and took my money without hesitation.
I do however, advocate using mostly cash on trips like that- that way, you don’t flash credit cards or anything like that, and EVERYONE takes cash. Just withdraw a couple hundred Euros from an ATM machine every few days, and you’ll be fine.
And yes, let your banks know so they don’t cut your cards off.
There are hardly any Chip and Pin issued in the USA at the moment, and it is probably too late if you don’t have one. I know USAA has one chip and pin card, but it gets issued as a non chip and you have to request the Chip & Pin. Chip & Signature cards are more widely available - Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Hyatt, Citi AAdvantage Executive, Citi Hilton HHonors, are all ones that I have personally and are issued initially as chip version. C&S apparently work pretty much everywhere in Europe except unmanned kiosks like for train tickets, tolls, etc.
This is good to hear. When we were in England/Scotland last year, there were a couple places (restaurants, IIRC) where the swiping was a hassle. We plan to use your cash plan, mostly, but I just thought the chip & pin card would make things occasionally easier - and make us feel less like tourists
We’ll definitely be letting the banks know of our travel dates - thanks to all for that advice.
Maybe I should explain since some of you don’t realize this. In Europe at least as well as Canada, the old fashioned mag strip cards are mostly gone replaced by cards with embedded chips and using a PIN for verification. My cards still have a mag strip, but all have a chip and pin. When I use one in the US, they still swipe it and ask for a signature. Not in Canada. The merchant never sees my card. I insert it chip first into their machine and verify the amount and enter the PIN. A few seconds later, the transaction is complete. Waiters come to the table with a portable credit card machine and it works the same way.
My son living in Boston recently vacationed in Europe and was able to get one bank to give him a chip and signature card that apparently worked. Canadian merchants are so accustomed to Americans that they machines that can read either a chip or a mag strip. But I don’t think most European merchants can do that.
Money. It’s cheaper to write off a bit of credit card fraud as a cost of doing business than to pay to update their systems to include chip-and-pin. Until recently, that is. The high-profile Target fiasco and others ensuing have gotten everyone involved motivated to prevent more bad press about their industry/ies. Some people of the more conspiratory bent would say that the government hasn’t passed laws requiring higher-security credit cards because the financial and retail industries have bought off the lawmakers.
Most of the machines used in Europe actually can be used to read a magnetic strip card, it’s just that we see them so rarely, often retailers don’t know how to get the machines to accept them.
You can even still get a non-pin card from UK banks under some circumstances- I’ve met disabled people who have them, either because of the risk of an unscrupulous carer learning the pin, or because muscle tremors make it hard to type reliably.
